Kraken’s Australian entity, Bit Trade, is facing a multi-million fine for failing to comply with rules requiring a target market determination for its margin extension product.

The Australian operator of the Kraken crypto exchange, Bit Trade, has been fined AUD 8 million (around $5.2 million) for unlawfully issuing a credit facility to more than 1,100 customers, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said in a Thursday press release, Dec. 12.

The Federal Court ruled that the company failed to follow Australian laws requiring financial products to have a target market determination to ensure they are sold to the right customers.

From October 2021, Bit Trade offered a margin extension product that “provided for margin extensions to be made and repaid in either digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC) or national currencies such as U.S. dollars,” the regulator says. However, the product was marketed without a required target market determination, a key regulatory document meant to ensure financial products are offered only to suitable customers.

The court found Bit Trade’s product breached design and distribution obligations requirements every time it was issued without a target market determination. Customers were charged fees and interest exceeding $7 million, with trading losses surpassing $5 million, the regulator claims.

One investor reportedly lost nearly $4 million using the margin extension product. Justice Nicholas, in his ruling, described Bit Trade’s actions as “serious and motivated by a desire to maximize revenue,” adding that the company failed to address compliance requirements until flagged by ASIC.

Commenting on the ruling, ASIC Chair Joe Longo called it a “significant outcome,” adding that “it is ASIC’s first penalty against an entity for failing to have a TMD and a reminder for digital assets firms to consider their regulatory compliance obligations.” In addition to the fine, Bit Trade was ordered to cover ASIC’s legal costs.

Australia, with the world’s most significant number of crypto ATMs, seeks advice from an international organization on implementing crypto taxation.

The Organization of Economic Cooperations and Development (OECD), which has invented taxation on digital assets framework, was asked by the Department of Treasury to share input by next January.

The input of the consultations has focused on comparing two options of crypto taxation: implementing the OECD’s Crypto Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) into their law or customizing the policy approach.

CARF is a taxation transparency framework for the international authorities to collect tax-related information from the providers, including crypto-asset purchases and specific consumer data for $50k above transactions. Tax authorities could also share the information with other authorities to gain related information.

“The CARF improves visibility of income from crypto assets. This helps increase compliance with local tax laws and deter tax evasion,” the government on report.

The consultations seek advice on whether the government should follow the same rules as the OECD or implement its own to target specific data needed. If the Australian government implements its own, it could add or remove particular information fields based on the tax authority.

CARF would apply the Reporting Crypto Asset Providers to several crypto companies, including crypto exchanges, wallet providers, brokers, dealers, and ATM providers.

Australia’s growing crypto industry

The Australian government is aware that the crypto industry is growing. This is reflected in the relatively high crypto adoption among their people, with one-fifth of their population identified as crypto holders.

Australian crypto holders last year also gained a profit of up to $9,627 on average, or an increase of 17% from 2022 profit, according to a Swyftx report. The number of people going to invest in crypto in the next year is projected to boost to more than 2 million people.

According to CoinATMRadar, the crypto automatic teller machines (ATM) in Australia also share a big amount, estimated at around 3,3% of the market share in the world. The ATM has spread into Australia’s top cities, including Sydney (441), Melbourne (311), Brisbane (201), and Perth (140).

The government has recently sought advice regarding the central bank digital currency or digital dollar.

Monochrome Asset Management is set to launch Australia’s first spot Ethereum exchange-traded fund on Tuesday.

The Ethereum (ETH) ETF will debut on the Cboe Australia, bringing the Monochrome Ethereum ETF with the ticker IETH to the market on Tuesday, Oct. 15.

IETH launches a few months after Monochrome unveiled its spot Bitcoin (BTC) ETF, which launched in August. The Monochrome Bitcoin ETF (IBTC) held about 167 Bitcoin, worth AUD 15 million.

Monochrome and its partner Vasco Trustees Limited filed an application for the listing of IETH on the Cboe Australia in early September, noting in an announcement that the spot Ethereum ETF would passively hold Ether.

That means the product would offer retail investors a regulated avenue to gain exposure to Ether, the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, currently over $316 billion.

IETH is a dual-access fund, allowing for both cash and in-kind redemptions. For investors, this means the ability to buy and cash out of the ETF with the underlying asset, Ether. Meanwhile, State Street Australia will serve as the fund’s administrator. Digital assets custody provider BitGo and crypto exchange Gemini are the fund’s custody services providers.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approved the first spot crypto ETFs in the U.S. in January 2024, giving the nod to funds that include spot Bitcoin ETFs by BlackRock, Fidelity Investments, and Grayscale.

The SEC went on to approve spot Ethereum ETFs in May, with trading going live in July. Hong Kong and Australia are among several countries to greenlight spot crypto ETFs.

However, while the value of assets held in these funds in countries like Australia is small, the U.S. market has seen a notable rise in demand. Data from ETF tracking site SoSoValue shows the total net assets in U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETFs as of Oct. 11 was $58.66 billion. Ethereum had $6.74 billion.