Former Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) chairman Greg Medcraft has urged Australian regulators to join the crypto start-up race. He is joined by venture capitalist Mark Carnegie in pushing regulators to develop a plan that encourages digital asset technology and investment, according to the Australian Financial Review.
Get On Board or Risk Losing Out
Australia is at risk of losing out on a multitrillion-dollar opportunity to generate revenue from companies in the digital asset sectors, business leaders have warned, after Britain released an ambitious plan to lure cryptocurrency players with tax and start-up incentives.
Medcraft and Carnegie have asked for a bipartisan approach in the face of elevated global competition to attract crypto start-ups building on blockchain technology. Their comments come soon after ASIC warned cryptocurrency companies that they would be held to the same standards as traditional finance companies.
Medcraft and Carnegie were speaking ahead of this week’s Australian Financial Review Cryptocurrency Summit in which Medcraft, a personal investor in Ethereum, the network that powers decentralised finance (DeFi) and NFTs, and Carnegie, who has invested in various crypto businesses from Singapore, said Australia risked falling behind other nations putting in place initiatives to attract players in the digital asset sector.
It’s a global competition.
Greg Medcraft, former ASIC chairman
EU Is Setting the Pace
Medcraft helped lead the digital asset policy at the OECD in Paris for almost four years before returning to Australia. As we know, the European Union is preparing a comprehensive regime for digital assets including cryptocurrencies in its Markets in Crypto Assets (MiCA) legislation. Medcraft added: “What is happening is governments around the world are realising you want to have an enabling environment to be the centre for crypto technology.”
Medcraft celebrated the landmark crypto plan announced by Britain’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak. Among the reforms, Britain plans to regulate stablecoins – digital currencies whose value is linked to fiat money – to pave their way for use in the country as a recognised form of payment.
“This area is so damn dynamic,” Medcraft said. “Do we want barriers or do we want encouragement? What is increasingly happening is a comprehensive government approach.”
Australia may not be progressing according to the pace Medcraft and Carnegie expect, but there is some action being taken by Australian regulators to reform its cryptocurrency plan.
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