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Australia's Parliament has passed the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025. The Senate approved the bill on April 1, and it is now marked as having passed both houses. The legislation amends the Corporations Act 2001 and the ASIC Act 2001 to bring digital asset platforms and tokenized custody platforms into Australia's financial services framework. The government said in November the reform covers digital assets including real world assets such as bonds, property, and commodities represented as tokens.
What changes for operators
Providers that advise on, deal in, or arrange dealings in digital asset platforms or tokenized custody platforms will need an Australian Financial Services Licence. Treasury's fact sheet says those operators will also face conduct, governance, disclosure, dispute resolution, and compensation obligations. ASIC is the primary supervisor, as confirmed on ASIC's digital assets page.
Two platform categories
The bill draws a line between two types. A digital asset platform is where an operator holds digital tokens for clients and may transfer, trade, or stake them on instruction. A tokenized custody platform is where an operator holds the underlying assets and issues tokens linked to redemption or delivery rights, according to Treasury's explanatory materials. That second category is directly relevant to tokenized real world assets. Treasury explicitly framed it as enabling asset tokenization services within a defined licensing perimeter. Stablecoins are excluded from the tokenized custody category and routed into payments regulation instead.
Boundaries and exemptions
Self-hosted wallets, automated market makers, and non-custodial bridges fall outside the new categories where operators do not take possession of client assets. There is also a low-risk exemption for platforms holding less than A$5,000 per customer and facilitating less than A$10 million in annual transactions. The Parliamentary Library digest says the regime will commence 12 months after Royal Assent, with businesses given 18 months to comply.
Why this is different from what came before
Australia had been relying on case-by-case application of existing law to supervise crypto and tokenization services. Treasury's 2025 roadmap flagged this gap. The Parliamentary Library's review also documented earlier legislative attempts and court decisions that left the boundaries unclear. The new law gives ASIC a specific statutory basis for supervising custody-style crypto and tokenization operations, rather than fitting them into frameworks designed for something else.
The bill affects exchanges, custodians, tokenization platforms, and any operator holding client digital assets or underlying assets within the new categories. Investors and issuers face a more formal disclosure and client asset handling regime. For the industry, the clock starts at Royal Assent.
