The Australian Securities and Investments Commission has bolstered it cryptocurrency team as it looks to regulate more digital assets by classifying them as financial products, a move that would make selling them to Australians more difficult. Asic has yet to decide whether to classify Ethereum, the second most popular cryptocurrency after bitcoin, as a financial product after the way the currency operates changed last week. Most cryptocurrencies have not been regulated by Asic because they do not meet the definition of a financial product, depriving the authority of jurisdiction. However, the regulator increased the size of its crypto team in March amid a wave of collapses in the industry that devastated investors who poured money into the sector as prices soared in late 2020. Other regulators have also begun taking a closer look at cryptocurrency, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission becoming aggressive in its approach to whether individual coins, including Ethereum, qualify as securities, bringing them under its regulatory umbrella.
Read more : Asic bolsters its cryptocurrency team and looks to regulate more digital assets.
