The Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 has received Royal Assent, introducing digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms as financial products.
Where things stand
On 8 April 2026, the Corporations Amendment (Digital Assets Framework) Bill 2025 (Bill) received Royal Assent. The Bill amends the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth) (Corporations Act) to extend the Australian financial services licence (AFSL) framework to digital assets.
New products and obligations
The Bill introduces two new categories of financial products under the Corporations Act:
- Digital Asset Platforms (DAPs), being a facility where an operator holds digital tokens (underlying assets), either for themselves or on behalf of someone else.
- Tokenised Custody Platforms (TCPs), being a facility where an operator identifies and holds assets other than money, issuing a single digital token for each asset, which grants the holder the right to redeem or direct the delivery of that asset. The operator acts on behalf of the token holder, often as trustee or bailee, and may also manage the asset according to the holder’s instructions.
Operators of these platforms will be required to hold an Australian financial services licence (AFSL) and comply with the general obligations that apply to all AFSL holders. These obligations do not apply to digital asset issuers or to businesses that create or use digital assets for non-financial purposes.
DAP and TCP operators will also need to comply with additional obligations, including:
- Minimum standards to be developed by ASIC relating to asset holding, transactions and settlement.
- Disclosure obligations including the requirement to provide clients the same disclosure about the underlying assets they acquire through a DAP or TCP. This is the same disclosure they would receive if they acquired those assets directly. Operators must also prepare and publish a platform guide, platform voting policy and platform rules.
Other considerations
The Bill also provides the following:
- Staking: certain ‘custodial staking arrangements’ will not be managed investment schemes or financial products.
- Wrapped tokens: redemption rights are disregarded when deciding whether a wrapped token (or rights attached to it) is a financial product, unless the holder’s rights materially differ from holding the referenced asset directly.
- Low-value DAP exemption: an issuer of a DAP does not need to hold an AFSL if the total market value of transactions across all its platforms does not exceed $10 million over a 12-month period.
- Targeted fundraising, product disclosure and anti‑hawking relief: certain fundraising, product disclosure and anti‑hawking obligations do not apply on the basis that investor protection is delivered through the platform guide together with underlying‑asset disclosures.
- Incidental arranging relief: a person primarily engaged in a non‑financial services business is not required to hold an AFSL only because, in the ordinary course of that business, they arrange for a person to use a DAP or TCP or inform them of its availability. The relief is limited to introductions and incidental arranging.
What’s next
The Digital Asset Framework will commence on 9 April 2027.
For the first 6 months from commencement (the transition period), the DAP/TCP amendments do not apply to the provision of a DAP/TCP financial service while the relevant provider does not hold an AFSL with an authorisation for that service. If the provider has made an application to ASIC, the DAP/TCP amendments do not apply to the provision of a DAP/TCP financial service until the day after ASIC makes a decision regarding the application.