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Australia’s Senate Economics Legislation Committee has recommended that the Senate pass the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025. The committee report says this directly in its final recommendation. The bill is part of Australia’s federal legislative process and is aimed at digital asset activity that does not fit clearly inside older legal categories. It already passed the House of Representatives and is now before the Senate, where the public bill record shows the debate is still at second reading.
What the bill does
The proposal would amend the Corporations Act 2001 and the ASIC Act 2001. In simple terms, it would create legal definitions for digital tokens, digital asset platforms, and tokenised custody platforms. The explanatory memorandum says tokenisation can turn rights in real-world assets, including property, into digital tokens, which is why the bill matters for real estate tokenisation and broader RWA structures. The same document says these platforms would be treated as financial products in many cases, so operators would usually need an Australian Financial Services licence and would have to follow conduct, custody, and disclosure rules.
This is more than a simple policy statement. The bill would place covered platform activity inside a formal financial services framework, with ASIC as the main regulator. It would also allow ASIC to use existing product intervention powers and to set more detailed standards for how firms hold assets and run platform operations. For retail business, the proposal would use a tailored DAP or TCP guide instead of a standard product disclosure statement. The bill also includes limits and carve-outs, including a low-value exemption for some smaller platform activity and a rule for services that are only an insignificant part of a wider business.
Why it matters
The change is important because Australia already has regulatory guidance on tokenised assets, but this bill would move from guidance to a specific legal structure. ASIC’s updated digital asset guidance already includes examples on tokenised assets, including tokenised real estate, and shows that some of these products may already fall inside financial services law depending on how they are built and sold. The bill would make that framework more explicit for platforms and custody models that deal with digital tokens linked to assets or rights.
There is no immediate change in market practice because the bill has not yet passed Parliament. Still, the proposal matters now for issuers, platform operators, custody providers, advisers, and compliance teams. If enacted, it would set clearer legal conditions for who can run covered tokenisation infrastructure, what licences they need, and what standards apply when digital token structures are offered to clients in Australia.
