The allure of new investment opportunities, the anonymity of exchanges and the absence of third party intervention have attracted large and small scale stakeholders to invest in crypto assets.
Survey data from the Senate Select Committee on Australia as a Technology and Financial Centre shows that 17 per cent of Australians currently own cryptocurrency, with a further 13 per cent planning to buy cryptocurrency in the next 12 months, making Australia one of the world’s most significant adopters of cryptocurrencies on a per capita basis.
Australia’s own Commonwealth Bank recently announced plans to allow customers to trade cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, on its mobile banking app.
But decision makers and regulators are coming into 2022 with a warning – cryptocurrency is a high-risk game. In January 2022, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) warned self-managed superannuation fund investors to beware of an increasing number of crypto-related scams.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) estimates that investment scams have cost Australians over $150 million in 2021 alone.
While much of the allure of cryptocurrency is the lack of regulation, the rise in scams and the potential for use of the currency in money laundering and cyber attacks has led to growing calls for regulation.
Potential investors should beware that the regulatory landscape for cryptocurrency is likely to shift in 2022. The world of an under-regulated,…
