Australian Cryptocurrency Exchanges to Meet New Technology Regulations

The Australian Transactions and Reporting Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) recently announced the implementation of new crypto market regulations. According to them, all domestic cryptocurrency exchanges must obey the requirements which include anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing.  The mandatory obligations took effect starting Tuesday, April 3.

“There will be criminal offence and civil penalty consequences if you provide digital currency exchange services without being registered,” AUSTRAC claims.

AUSTRAC presented new fintech rules that must be strictly followed by all domestic businesses dealing with bitcoin, ethereum or any other digital currency exchange. Some of the major regulations are to report to the authority about suspicious transactions involving a large amount of fiat currency, to verify the identities of their users, to install a special program for identifying money laundering and terrorism financing risks, and to keep necessary records of the transaction related data for seven years.

Moreover, during the next six months, the CEO of AUSTRAC will have the power to take measures against crypto exchange operators if they fail to conform to the stated requirements. They have a period of time till May 14 to join the “Digital Currency Exchange Register”, supervised by the authority.