Lucas Dobbins
The passage of the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 is a significant moment, not just for Australia’s digital asset industry, but for the broader project of building a financial system fit for the decade ahead.
This has been a long time coming. Years of submissions, working groups, and sustained engagement with government and regulators have brought us here. I want to take a moment to recognise Caroline Bowler, BTC Markets’ former CEO and now Non-Executive Director. Her sustained work with Treasury, regulators, and industry participants over many years played a meaningful role in getting this bill over the line. Today is, in part, a reflection of that commitment.
For the first time, digital asset platforms operate within a dedicated legislative framework with clear expectations around licensing, consumer protection, and platform standards. That clarity matters, for businesses like BTC Markets, and for the institutional and retail investors who have been watching Australia’s regulatory posture closely.
But this is stage one cleared, not the finish line. What gets built on this foundation depends on how the regime is implemented in practice: the licensing pathways ASIC establishes, the transitional arrangements for existing platforms, and the pragmatism applied to real-world business models.
The timing is also worth noting. A week after the RBA’s Project Acacia findings pointed clearly toward a tokenised financial system, this bill provides the structural underpinning that makes that future achievable. Regulation and innovation are moving in alignment and that alignment is what unlocks institutional confidence at scale.
BTC Markets has been building toward this. Our markets licence application and ongoing engagement with ASIC and Treasury are deliberate investments in being a regulated, trusted participant in this market. The industry has earned its seat at the table. We intend to use it.
Australia has done this before, superannuation, the New Payments Platform, polymer banknotes. This framework can be the next chapter. The legislation has passed. The work now begins.
By Lucas Dobbins, CEO