Australia opens up its doors to crypto

After an optimistic week for crypto in the West, recent news out of Australia shows the East is following suit...

Joining the global regulatory race, Australia opened the public consultation on its own taxonomy of crypto assets. The national regulators propose to distinguish four major types of products related to the crypto industry.  On Feb. 3, the Australian Treasury released a consultation paper on "Token Mapping," announcing it as a foundational step in the government's multistage reform agenda to regulate the market. It seeks to inform "a fact-based, consumer conscious and innovation-friendly" approach to policy development. Starting from these simple definitions, the paper proposes its taxonomy of four types of crypto-related products:      1. Crypto asset services — lending and borrowing, fiat on/off ramping, crypto token trading, funds management, mining, staking as a service, gambling, and custody.       2. Intermediated crypto assets — closest to widespread definition of tokens; rights or licenses in relation to event access or subscriptions, intellectual property, reward programs, consumer goods and services, fiat money, nonfinancial assets, and government bond coupons. This class includes stablecoins.      3. Network tokens — a "new type of currency" constituting peer-to-peer payment infrastructures. Think of the original Bitcoin.       4. Smart contracts — existing on a spectrum from "intermediated" to "public." Intermediaries use the former in providing a service; the latter is used by parties to remove the need for an intermediary.  While the paper proposes to start the discussion on this taxonomy and doesn't provide any legislative initiatives, its authors anticipate a relatively easy tailoring of existing laws for a large portion of the crypto ecosystem.  It is the pockets of the ecosystem where functions are being ensured by the public, self-service software, which could demand the creation of a brand-new legislative framework. Why is this important? Developing regulations in the East will increase the reliability and transparency of transactions across the crypto ecosystem. It will also introduce new sources of trading volume, an ingredient essential for sustained moves in the prices of crypto assets.  Get the full story by reading the complete article on Cointelegraph. Don't miss a beat in the world of crypto. Leverage the same AI technology that Cointelegraph's journalists use to surface the latest news with the NewsQuakes™ indicator that's only available on Cointelegraph Markets Pro — click here to learn more. Regards, Russell DeCorte Director Markets Pro    © 2023 COINTELEGRAPH MARKETS PRO COINFIDENTIAL. Copyright © 2023 Cointelegraph Markets Pro, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in at our website. Our mailing address is: Cointelegraph Markets Pro 21 W 46th St New York, NY 10036-4119 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.