Australia announced a stocktake of its cryptocurrency holdings to help better understand and regulate the booming $1 trillion sector.
What Happened: The Treasury would undertake “token mapping,” or cataloging of the types and uses of digital currency owned within the country, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said in a statement, Reuters reported.
Chalmers said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese-led government would make “token mapping” a priority this year to help identify which digital asset tokens are being used in the country and how they should be regulated, adding that a public consultation paper on the matter would be released soon.
He added that Australia would be the first country in the world to conduct such an exercise.
“With the increasingly widespread proliferation of crypto assets, to the extent that crypto advertisements can be seen plastered all over big sporting events, we need to make sure customers engaging with crypto are adequately informed and protected,” Chalmers said.
This came after the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said that it wants cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin BTC/USD, Ethereum ETH/USD, and Dogecoin DOGE/USD to be regulated — citing its research that found 44% of retail investors held at least one cryptocurrency in late 2021.
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