Isabel Hall
Australian cryptocurrency already has an “emerging” crypto business, according to Australian entrepreneur Fred Schebesta, but it has to “align with other key markets.”
The Australian government’s emphasis on token mapping was praised by crypto entrepreneur and investor Fred Schebesta of Australia, although he cautioned that moving too quickly would have negative consequences for the country’s economy.
After Australian Treasury Secretary Jim Chalmers announced on August 22 that “the treasury will prioritize token mapping work” in 2022 to demonstrate “how crypto assets and related services should be regulated,” Schebesta made his remarks.
According to Schebesta, Australia already has an “emerging” crypto business. However, Schebesta feels that Australia needs to “align with other key markets and their legislation.”
The “complexities” of token mapping, according to Schebesta, remain unclear, and “things are evolving as well.”
Australian businessman and investor Schebesta is best known as the co-founder of the comparison website Finder. In addition, Schebesta co-founded the cryptocurrency investment firm Hive Empire Capital and serves as an advisor to the non-fungal token (NFT) game platform Balthazar.
According to him, the token mapping process could scare off cryptocurrency companies “if we haste,” especially if they have a “quite different strategy” from other nations.
It is not the time to “run out,” Schebesta emphasized, but rather to take some time to “just settle down and do some deeper examination.”
Three months after entering office, the new Labor government in Australia announced token mapping, breaking a protracted quiet on how it would tackle crypto policy in the nation.
Treasurer Chalmers stated at the time that the government aimed to control the “huge unregulated” crypto sector.
The crypto business is now mostly unregulated, and he stated that more effort needs to be done to find a balance so that we can embrace cutting-edge innovations.
The statement was lauded by many in the industry as an “essential milestone” for the sector, although some were dissatisfied that the nation had not progressed “further” toward regulatory clarity.
Australian attorney Liam Hennessy, Gadens’ partner, told Cointelegraph that while Australia is “in the vanguard of crypto advancements,” he is concerned that because no regulations have been put in place, it is “slowly lagging behind the UK and the US.” “particularly in financial services, in the crypto business.”
Hennessy contends that while token mapping is important, regulators shouldn’t focus primarily on it.
He worries that Australia has succumbed to the fallacy of “believing that a little government attention will address the problems” and thinks that this exercise in token mapping “seems to some degree.”
In 2021, Schebesta, stressed in a senate speech that “Australia will have a significant new workflow because it’s a safe, stable, and wonderful regulatory area to establish their business.” “The next two to three years” would see the creation of “thousands” of jobs.