Australian Securities and Investments Commission chair Joseph Longo has urged investors not to bet their farm on crypto in a recent interview with The Australian Financial Review:
“My personal warning to people is to be careful and dont put all your money into crypto.”
At the same time, Longo has also made it clear that Australia‘s top financial regulator doesn’t oppose the cryptocurrency industry, but it wants to root out bad behavior.
The ASIC finds it concerning that a large number of Australians are exposed to risky cryptocurrency assets.
It has been estimated that there are roughly 2 million cryptocurrency owners in Australia.
Longo says that it's challenging to supervise the cryptocurrency industry since a lot of projects are not classified as “financial products.”
He also called attention to the growing number of cryptocurrency-related scams in Australia.
Last month, federal police reported that Australians had lost A$109 million to crypto fraudsters in 2021.
Earlier this week, the ASIC issues a warning about the risks linked to investing retirement funds into crypto.
In early December, Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg announced his plan for regulating the crypto industry. The government also plans to issue its own cryptocurrency.
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