ASIC chair Longo calls the growing demand for crypto ‘impossible to ignore’

Joe Longo, Chairman of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, or ASIC, speak at the Australian Financial Review Wealth and Oversight Summit on Monday at the Fullerton Hotel in Sydney.

The crypto boom, he said, has been "nothing short of phenomenal and impossible to ignore."

As a market and corporate regulator, Longo admitted a certain fascination with decentralized autonomous organizations, or DAOs. He said they present certain challenges for national regulators like ASIC:

“Paraphrasing a concept familiar to corporate attorneys, who does ASIC turn to to determine the mind and directing will of a DAO? It's unclear who is responsible if things go wrong or don't go as planned or anticipated. It is also unclear how a DAO, by itself, can be held accountable in a court of law. "

Longo acknowledged the high consumer demand for crypto products and services in Australia, noting that ASIC still has important policy decisions to make regarding the crypto space, “Wherever we land from a political perspective [...] crypto is right around the corner, here and now, and it's driven by extraordinary demand from consumers and investors. "

While his comments included caution for investors, the chairman saw that Commonwealth Bank's recent entry into the crypto market by offering crypto trading functionality to its app users was an important step to recognize in the evolution of the markets. encryption:

"The fact [that] Australia's largest bank is already proposing a means of crypto exposure for its retail clients. Yes, it is just a pilot project, but the general direction is clear. This debate is no longer on the fringes of the financial services industry. "

Australia's interest in the blockchain space appears to have increased over the course of the past few months. On Friday, November 19, the chief executive of the country's Commonwealth Bank said he was more concerned about missing the rise of this nascent technology than with the supposed risks related to adoption. On November 2, the Australian Senate spoke with enthusiasm from the industry, praising the nation's crypto advocates for their willingness to adopt the regulation.