Australia is at risk of missing the $17B crypto boat, researchers say

Australia has the potential to generate 24 billion Australian dollars ($17 billion) annually from advancements in tokenized markets and digital assets, provided that regulatory progress is made, according to a report by the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC).

Report Findings and Recommendations

The DFCRC report, titled “Unlocking Australia’s $24b Digital Finance Opportunity,” identifies regulatory uncertainty, coordination issues, and limited pathways for pilot projects as major obstacles for the industry. To address these, the report suggests establishing a regulatory sandbox for testing new technologies like tokenized financial market use cases. This sandbox would foster collaboration between regulators and industry participants and enhance licensing frameworks.

Additionally, the DFCRC proposes deploying tokenized government bonds and a wholesale central bank digital currency (CBDC) within the sandbox to support the development of tokenized markets, collateralized lending, and related financial services.

Economic Potential of Tokenization

The DFCRC estimates significant annual gains from markets with expanded investor access, deeper liquidity, and increased participation. Tokenized money, including stablecoins and CBDCs, could also streamline domestic and cross-border transactions by reducing reliance on high-fee correspondent banks.

Tokenization is expected to create assets with greater transparency, usability, and flexibility, thereby increasing their utility and enabling direct use in automated trading, lending, and collateral-management systems. The report highlights that nearly half of the projected economic gains stem from enabling collateralized lending, repo, and invoice financing markets on tokenized rails, with smart contracts automating collateral management, margining, and settlement.

Impact of Regulatory Uncertainty

Kate Cooper, CEO of crypto exchange OKX, stated that without improved regulation, the potential economic gains will be substantially lower in the coming years. The DFCRC estimates that without significant industry-wide changes, Australia might only achieve 1 billion Australian dollars ($710 million) in economic gains from crypto by 2030.

Cooper emphasized that long-term economic benefits depend on clear regulatory frameworks and institutional-standard infrastructure to build trust, attract capital, and secure Australia's position in global finance.