Australia Proposes Retail Protections for Crypto-Settled CFDs

Australia is proposing to extend retail protections to qualifying contracts for difference settled through digital assets, addressing a gap that can leave economically similar products subject to different safeguards. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), Australia’s financial regulator, would apply existing leverage-limit protections, standardized margin close-out rules, negative-balance protection and restrictions on inducements to qualifying digital-asset-settled CFDs alongside cash- and set-off-settled contracts. In the 2023–24 financial year, 133,674 retail CFD clients lost more than A$458 million across asset classes, including A$73 million in fees.