Three months following the election into power, the Australian Labor Party (ALP) has finally come forth with the way it plans to approach crypto regulation. 

Specifically, Treasurer Jim Chalmers reportedly issued an announcement of a “token mapping” exercise, which was among the 12 suggestions in a senate inquiry report in 2021 regarding “Australia as a Technology and Financial Center.” 

The report reportedly received warm welcomes from the sector, which has been anxiously waiting to see whether the ALP government would adopt a positive stance towards it.

With a primary target of being carried out prior to the end of the year, the token mapping exercise is expected to assist in “identifying how crypto assets and related services should be regulated” and inform future regulatory decisions.

It is reportedly disclosed that Treasury will also undertake work on a few of the other suggestions in the near future, nominally a licensing framework for crypto asset service providers working with non-financial product crypto assets, appropriate requirements to safeguard the consumer crypto asset custody, and a review of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) company-style structure.

As stated via note from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, together with Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh, the government led by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese reveals its desire to reign in on a “largely unregulated” crypto sphere. 

“As it stands, the crypto sector is largely unregulated, and we need to do some work to get the balance right so we can embrace new and innovative technologies.”

The statement additionally revealed that over one million taxpayers have had interactions with the crypto ecosystem since 2018, and yet, “regulation is struggling to keep pace and adapt with the crypto asset sector.”

The politicians stated that the previous Liberal-led government had previously “dabbled” in crypto asset regulation through crypto secondary service providers “without first understanding what was being regulated:”