ASIC has today announced an important step in facilitating growth and innovation in the digital assets and payments sectors.
ASIC has granted class relief for intermediaries engaging in the secondary distribution of a stablecoin issued by an Australian financial services (AFS) licensed issuer.
As and when more issuers of eligible stablecoins obtain an AFS licence, ASIC will consider extending the above relief to intermediaries distributing those stablecoins.
ASIC is committed to supporting responsible innovation in the rapidly evolving digital assets space, while ensuring important consumer protections are in place by having eligible stablecoins issued under an AFS licence.
The first-of-its-kind relief exempts intermediaries from the requirement to hold separate AFS, Australian market, or clearing and settlement facility licences when providing services related to stablecoins issued by an AFS licensee.
Intermediaries benefiting from this relief must make the exempt stablecoin’s product disclosure statement available to their clients (where an issuer has prepared a Product Disclosure Statement).
The relief will take effect once registered on the Federal Registration of Legislation.
Download
- ASIC Corporations (Stablecoin Distribution Exemption) Instrument 2025/631 (PDF 225 KB)
- Explanatory Statement for ASIC Instrument 2025/631 (PDF 239 KB)
Background
ASIC consulted on draft updates to its guidance on crypto and digital assets (INFO 225) in December 2024: see Consultation Paper 381 Updates to INFO 225: Digital assets: Financial products and services (CP 381).
CP 381 proposed a range of updates to provide greater clarity about the current law, including adding practical examples of how the current financial product definitions apply to digital assets and related products.
It included stablecoins, crypto exchange native tokens, meme coins, commodity-linked tokens and wrapped tokens, and affected businesses included issuers, intermediaries and exchanges.
CP 381 included the position that some stablecoin issuers require a licence under the current law, as some stablecoins are a financial product under the current general definitions.
ASIC is finalising updates to INFO 225 and expects to publish it in coming weeks, as well as key thematics and public submissions received in response to CP 381.
ASIC is also working closely with Treasury as it looks to implement the Government’s digital assets reforms, including a framework for payment stablecoins, which it consulted on in 2023.
In July 2025, ASIC’s support of digital assets innovation saw it providing regulatory relief for participants of Project Acacia, enabling real-world testing of tokenised asset transactions and digital money.
