Overview
- ASIC Chair Joe Longo warned Australia could lose issuers and trading activity to jurisdictions moving faster on tokenized market infrastructure.
- ASIC will relaunch its Innovation Hub, expand sandbox support, and join Project Acacia and Singapore’s Project Guardian to test tokenized funds and digital money settlement.
- The regulator set a transition period through June 2026 for firms dealing with certain stablecoins, wrapped tokens and tokenized securities to meet licensing and custody requirements.
- International momentum is building, with SIX Digital Exchange surpassing $3.1 billion in digital bond issuance, Nasdaq preparing tokenized securities trading subject to approval, and J.P. Morgan reportedly planning to fully tokenize money market funds within two years.
- Structural pressures include private credit growing more than 500% to over $200 billion and a $4.3 trillion superannuation pool that is straining liquidity and transparency in public markets.