Australia’s crypto market is showing user growth and regulatory progress, but executives say significant issues remain.
On the sidelines of the XRP Australia 2026 event in Sydney, Coinbase APAC managing director John O’Loghlen pointed to “positive regulatory momentum” and growing expertise within government bodies policing the industry. “Multiple arms of government, mainly Treasury, who are writing the draft regulation and ASIC have thoroughly upskilled their teams and have pretty deep digital asset domain expertise internally. So I think there’s been pretty positive movement.”
O’Loghlen noted rising institutional interest and easier access via products such as crypto exchange-traded funds. Australia’s first spot Bitcoin ETF launched in June 2024 and an Ether ETF followed in October 2024. He also said Coinbase’s inclusion in the S&P 500 gives Australian institutions a passive way to learn about the industry.
Independent Reserve’s 2025 report found crypto adoption in Australia reached 31% (up from 28% in 2024), and 29% of respondents planned to invest within 12 months.
Self-managed super fund (SMSF) investors are another growth area. OKX Australia CEO Kate Cooper said the exchange has seen increased participation from sophisticated traders, SMSF trustees and high-net-worth individuals. She added many SMSFs are being established specifically to allow trustees to invest in digital assets because large super funds often do not provide that access. Preliminary OKX research shows respondents seek digital assets to diversify portfolios: “a significant number of people wanting a diversified portfolio, wanting not just crypto, but digital assets more broadly, to be held as part of their portfolio. And SMSF is one of the main ways to do that.”
Despite progress, persistent challenges include banking barriers and debanking for crypto businesses and users. “It’s absolutely still a challenge in the industry,” Cooper said. “I don’t think there’s been any improvements. And we’re working hard with governments to encourage them to set some standards around it.” O’Loghlen urged solutions to debanking, stronger protections for blockchain payments innovation and more support for Australian stablecoins. He warned regulators to avoid unintentionally capturing non-custodial wallet developers and public blockchain infrastructure providers within licensing regimes designed for intermediaries.
The legal and regulatory environment also faces uncertainty. Crypto lawyer Bill Morgan described it as “wait and see” while the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) appeals a Federal Court decision siding with fintech firm Block Earner over whether it needed a financial services licence for crypto products. Morgan added that political cycles may be slowing legislative momentum: “I think to some extent it’s a function of having three-year terms. There was some momentum under the former Liberal National Party coalition government, but then, when Labor won its first term four years ago, it took a while for it to get going again.”
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