Coinbase is concerned about Australia's "continued enforcement oversight"

John O'Loghlen, managing director of Asia Pacific at Coinbase, said in an interview that they were concerned about "ongoing regulation through enforcement", which was "not helpful" to the overall direction of the industry ahead of the upcoming draft legislation in Australia. "Given the positive interaction we have had with regulators in recent times that we did not have before, we want to avoid ongoing regulation through enforcement," O'Loghlen said. "With the recent approval of spot ETFs in Australia and the US, there are clearly good macro themes and continued increases in consumer adoption, and we want to make sure we don't mess things up in this grey area until the draft legislation is in place." The Australian Treasury previously announced plans to publish draft legislation covering licensing and custody rules for crypto asset providers by the end of 2024.
In "four or five roundtables" held in recent weeks, Mr. O'Loghlen said, "we have been vocal about our concerns about the potential continuation of regulations by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) ", although he praised the new ASIC team for "being very proactive in communicating with all industry players" and "proactive" in engaging in conversations with "about 50 groups".