For the past 12 months, many Australian digital asset businesses have been operating under the benefit of ASIC’s no-action position. ASIC first granted this breathing room in October 2025 and then extended and updated it again in June 2026. This no-action position had deadlines in place and those have just ended.
What did the relief cover?
ASIC’s class no-action letter was its way of easing the digital assets industry into Australia’s financial services licensing regime. In practice, it meant that ASIC won’t come after you for not holding the right licence yet, as long as you meet certain conditions and are genuinely on the path to getting licensed.
The no-action letter covered three different licensing requirements under the Corporations Act:
- Needing an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) to provide financial services involving digital assets;
- Needing an Australian Market Licence to operate a trading venue in digital assets; and
- Needing an Australian Clearing and Settlement Facility Licence to operate clearing and settlement in digital assets.
It did not cover everything though
Crypto lending and “earn” products, non-cash payment facilities (other than stablecoins) and derivatives (other than wrapped tokens) all sit outside the relief and were never protected by it.
Stablecoins and wrapped tokens also have their own separate, more targeted relief under a dedicated ASIC instrument, alongside this broader no-action letter.
Importantly, one thing that has never been covered by any form of relief are wallets that enable third party transfers, which INFO 225 suggest are likely a non-cash payment facility. Any such facility must be offered under an AFSL and have the full suite of disclosure documents supporting them (including TMD, PDS and FSG).
Qualification under no action
There are three important dates under the no-action letter and they apply slightly differently depending on what your business does.
- 31 December 2025 — the cut-off for history. To rely on the relief at all, you needed to have already been providing the relevant financial service, operating the market, or operating the clearing and settlement facility in Australia on or before this date. This means new ideas, products or service or new entrants never had this benefit.
- 30 September 2026 — the no-action deadline. This is the date by which you needed to have lodged your AFSL application (or equivalent variation), or, for market and clearing and settlement licences, notified ASIC of your intention to apply and attended a licensing pre-meeting.
- For market licences and clearing and settlement facility licences, there’s a further 12-month window after notifying ASIC of your intention to apply, within which the actual application needs to be lodged.
- If you’ve decided to exit the digital assets business instead of getting licensed, there’s also a wind-down path where you must have notified ASIC of your intention to stop by 30 September 2026 and then actually cease within three months of that notice.
What this means if you’re an exchange?
If you run an exchange where people buy, sell or swap digital assets, then at this point you should have already assessed each digital asset that you list to determine if any are financial products. To the extent that you have not obtained an AFSL or lodged an application, you are no longer permitted to trade those digital assets and, where relevant, operate a market in those digital assets.
What this means if you’re a token issuer?
If you are issuing a token, you should ensure that you have updated your regulatory advice for last year’s INFO 225 changes and confirmed what your future state is following upcoming reforms. Generally, if your digital asset is a financial product, you must have already applied for an AFSL to continue offering it. There is a likelihood that some current digital assets that are not financial products will become one under the reforms, especially those tokenising real world assets (for example, a TCP) it is important to prepare for this now and take advice.
What this means if you are a service provider?
If you operate a business that uses digital assets to offer services (for example, payments, custody etc), then you should have engaged in a full regulatory review of your current offering to confirm whether you are captured by upcoming reforms.
Top tips
There has been a big push in the last 12 months to obtain an AFSL or work toward obtaining one in the next 12 months as part of upcoming reforms. Operating within the fully regulated AFSL environment can be a big change. It is important to consider:
- Marketing disclosures:. This is known as a general advice or advertising warning and can be prepared as a hybrid. This is mandatory wherever you provide general advice or marketing material for a financial product.
- Regulatory documents (e.g. PDS, FSG, TMD, TCP/DAP Guide): these are the core disclosure documents for the industry and a combination of some or all of these are required whenever you engage with a financial product or service.
- Reporting and complaints: there are obligations to report to ASIC any breach of your licence or the law that meets certain thresholds. It is important to have a system to identify breaches and then report them. Additionally, AFCA membership is required for dealing with retail customers, with a requirement to report complaints to ASIC as a licensee by certain dates.
- Conflicted remuneration: it is important to note that there is a ban on conflicted remuneration. If you are providing general or personal advice, you should undertake a review of your commercial arrangements to confirm that you do not receive or pay any conflicted remuneration.
- Arranging: it is important to understand that just because you outsource certain regulated functions (e.g. custody or a wallet), that doesn’t mean you are not providing a financial service. Where you undertake this activity, you should confirm whether you are arranging for someone to receive or be issued a financial product by someone else.
For more information, contact us for a copy of our Digital Assets – Licensing Fact Sheet.
Hamilton Locke can assist with all aspects of preparing for upcoming reforms including advice, disclosure documents, agreements and licensing.
For more information, please contact Jaime Lumsden and Nicholas Pavouris.
