Australia’s crypto market is making progress in user growth and regulatory reforms, but there are still a range of issues to iron out in the sector, crypto executives told Cointelegraph.
On the sidelines of the XRP Australia 2026 event in Sydney on Friday, Coinbase’s APAC managing director John O’Loghlen said the country has seen positive regulatory momentum and growing expertise among those tasked with policing the industry.
“Multiple arms of government, mainly Treasury, who are writing the draft regulation and ASIC, have pretty thoroughly kind of upskilled their teams and have pretty deep digital asset domain expertise internally. So I think there’s been pretty kind of positive movement.”
O’Loghlen also said institutional interest and access are growing through products like crypto exchange-traded funds. Australia’s first ETF, which holds Bitcoin (BTC) directly, went live in June 2024, followed by an ETF that holds Ether (ETH) in October 2024.
He also noted that Coinbase Global’s inclusion in the Standard & Poor’s 500 (S&P 500) index offers Australian institutions a means to access crypto-related stocks, allowing them to learn “about the industry in a very passive way.”
A 2025 report from crypto exchange Independent Reserve found that crypto adoption among Australians reached 31%, up from 28% in 2024. Additionally, 29% said they planned to invest in the next 12 months.
Crypto adoption among Australians hit a new high in 2025. Source: Independent Reserve
Self-managed super fund investors eye crypto
OKX Australia CEO Kate Cooper noted that a significant area of growth for the exchange has come from sophisticated traders, self-managed super fund (SMSF) trustees, and high-net-worth individuals.
At the same time, she said across the industry there are a growing number of new self-managed super funds being set up specifically so trustees can invest in digital assets, “because they currently can’t invest via the big super funds.”
SMSFs are retirement funds set up and managed by individuals, as opposed to conventional funds managed by large institutions on behalf of users.
In a yet-to-be-released OKX report investigating SMSFs, Cooper said many respondents were interested in digital assets as a way to diversify their holdings.
“That’s the feedback that we got through the research: a significant number of people wanting a diversified portfolio, wanting not just crypto, but digital assets more broadly, to be held as part of their portfolio. And SMSF is one of the main ways to do that.”
Lingering issues remain in Australia’s crypto scene
Last September, industry executives, including Cooper, told Cointelegraph that users in Australia still face banking barriers when engaging with exchanges and other crypto businesses.
“It’s absolutely still a challenge in the industry,” Cooper said. “I don’t think there’s been any improvements. And we’re working hard with governments to encourage them to set some standards around it.”
O’Loghlen also called for solutions to debanking, stronger protections for blockchain payments innovation, and greater support for Australian stablecoins.
“Regulatory settings must support innovation rather than inadvertently constrain it,” he said.
Related: Crypto lobby slams Australian broadcaster’s ‘sensational’ Bitcoin article
“As the Regulation of Payment Service Providers reforms are developed, it will be important to ensure that non-custodial wallet developers and public blockchain infrastructure providers are not unintentionally captured within licensing regimes designed for intermediaries,” O’Loghlen added.
Australian legal, regulatory landscape in limbo
Meanwhile, Australian crypto lawyer Bill Morgan said the Australian legal and regulatory crypto landscape appears to be in “wait and see” mode at the moment, following a court case between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) and fintech firm Block Earner.
ASIC is appealing a Federal Court decision siding with Block Earner about whether it was required to hold a financial services license for its crypto-related products.
He also pointed to a change in government that could be slowing legislation down.
“I think to some extent it’s a function of having three-year terms. There was some momentum under the former Liberal National Party coalition government, but then when Labor won its first term four years ago, then it took a while to for it to get going again.”
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