Australia’s crypto sector is advancing in both user adoption and regulatory reform, though several challenges remain unresolved, industry executives told Cointelegraph.
Speaking on the sidelines of the XRP Australia 2026 event in Sydney on Friday, John O’Loghlen, APAC managing director at Coinbase, said Australia has experienced encouraging regulatory momentum and increasing sophistication among authorities overseeing 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.”
John O’Loghlen added that institutional demand and market access are expanding through vehicles such as crypto exchange-traded funds. Australia’s first spot ETF holding Bitcoin launched in June 2024, followed by a spot Ether ETF in October 2024.
He also pointed to Coinbase Global’s inclusion in the S&P 500 as another pathway for Australian institutions to gain exposure to crypto-linked equities, enabling them to engage with the sector in a more passive manner.
Meanwhile, a 2025 report from Independent Reserve found that crypto ownership among Australians rose to 31%, up from 28% in 2024. The survey also showed that 29% of respondents plan to invest in digital assets over the next 12 months.
Self-managed super fund investors turn to crypto
Kate Cooper, CEO of OKX Australia, said a key growth segment for the exchange has been sophisticated traders, self-managed super fund (SMSF) trustees and high-net-worth individuals.
She noted that, across the broader industry, more investors are establishing new SMSFs specifically to gain exposure to digital assets, as many large traditional superannuation funds do not currently provide direct access to crypto investments.
SMSFs are retirement savings vehicles managed directly by individuals, rather than by large institutional fund managers on behalf of members.
According to a forthcoming OKX report examining SMSF trends, Cooper said many respondents view digital assets as a portfolio diversification tool.
“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 challenges persist in Australia’s crypto sector
Despite progress, significant hurdles remain for Australia’s crypto industry. Speaking previously, Kate Cooper said users continue to face banking restrictions when interacting with exchanges and other digital asset businesses.
“It’s absolutely still a challenge in the industry,” said Cooper of OKX Australia. “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.”
John O’Loghlen also called for clearer solutions to debanking, stronger safeguards for blockchain-based payment innovation, and more support for Australian stablecoin development.
“Regulatory settings must support innovation rather than inadvertently constrain it,” he said, adding that as reforms to the Regulation of Payment Service Providers framework take shape, policymakers must ensure non-custodial wallet developers and public blockchain infrastructure providers are not unintentionally swept into licensing regimes designed for financial intermediaries.
Legal and regulatory outlook in flux
Meanwhile, Australian crypto lawyer Bill Morgan described the country’s legal and regulatory environment as being in a “wait and see” phase, following a high-profile court dispute between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and fintech firm Block Earner.
ASIC is appealing a Federal Court ruling that sided with Block Earner on whether it was required to hold a financial services license for its crypto-related offerings.
Morgan also suggested that a recent change in government may be contributing to delays in advancing crypto legislation.
“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.”
