GOP Legislators Accuse Gensler's SEC of Manipulating News Cycle to Block Crypto Legislation

New algorithm stablecoins would be prohibited for two years under a draft US law

Australian sports sponsorship is assisting in legitimizing cryptocurrency

The Australian Labor Party (ALP), which has been in office for three months, has finally spoken out about its plans for cryptocurrency legislation.

A "token mapping" effort was one of the 12 recommendations in a senate inquiry report from last year on "Australia as a Technology and Financial Center," which Treasurer Jim Chalmers revealed. The industry, which was eager to see if the ALP administration would accept the report, warmly welcomed it.

The token mapping initiative, which is planned to be finished before the year is through, aims to "determine how crypto assets and related services should be governed" and guide future regulatory choices.
Australia's New Government Finally Signals Its Stance On Crypto Regulation - Metfabtech
According to Cointelegraph, Treasury will also start working on some of the other suggestions soon, such as a licensing framework for crypto asset service providers dealing in non-financial product crypto assets, suitable requirements to protect consumer crypto asset custody, and a review of the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) company-style structure.

The government headed by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says it wants to rein in a "largely unregulated" crypto sector in a statement from Treasurer Jim Chalmers, Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services Stephen Jones, and Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury Andrew Leigh:

"At the moment, the crypto industry is mostly unregulated, and we need to work to strike the appropriate balance so we can accept new and innovative technology,"

More than a million taxpayers have connected with the cryptocurrency ecosystem since 2018, but "regulation is struggling to keep pace and adapt with the crypto asset sector," according to the statement.

According to the MPs, the previous administration, which was led by the Liberals, had "dabbled" in regulating crypto assets through crypto secondary service providers "without first knowing what was being regulated:"

"The Albanese Government is approaching working out what is in the ecosystem and what hazards need to be looked at first with a more serious manner."

Michael Bacina, a partner at Piper Alderman, told Cointelegraph that the token mapping endeavor will be a "critical step" in bridging the substantial knowledge gap between policymakers and regulators.

In the current state of blockchain, "Australia punches above its weight, but we have seen regulatory uncertainty lead to enterprises leaving Australia," he said.

"A reasonable token mapping exercise that assists regulators and policy makers in better understanding the activities they are seeking to regulate as well as how technology interacts with those activities should help regulation be fit for purpose and both support innovation and jobs in Australia while protecting consumers," he continued.

BTC Markets CEO Caroline Bowler said the action echoes pleas from many in the sector for "proportional, proper regulation" of the business.

"Token mapping has numerous further advantages. It will help enterprises create their own blockchain-based innovations, give direction to digital currency exchanges, and give investors in cryptocurrencies more clarity. It will also help authorities create an acceptable regulatory framework, she added.



Aaron Lane, a senior lecturer at the RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub, thinks the Labor government is using the token mapping process as a sort of stalling tactic:

"Good is progress, but it's disheartening that we haven't made more headway toward better regulatory certainty for business and greater consumer protections."

Unfortunately, they had to use a token mapping exercise to buy themselves some time while they caught up.