Australia’s AUSTRAC Cancels, Suspends or Refuses Renewals for 45 Crypto, Remittance Firms

Australia’s financial intelligence agency, AUSTRAC, canceled, suspended or refused to renew the registrations of 45 virtual-asset and remittance businesses over the past year as it tightened oversight of payment providers with elevated money-laundering and other risks.

The Block reported on September 8 that the measures targeted businesses that were no longer operating, were insolvent or lacked the capacity to run their operations properly. Companies that failed to report major changes, had errors in their registration details or posed heightened money-laundering and terrorism-financing risks were also subject to sanctions.

AUSTRAC Chief Executive Officer Brendan Thomas said businesses whose registrations were canceled can no longer operate in those sectors. Information related to some company representatives was also shared with law-enforcement agencies and regulators in Australia and abroad.

AUSTRAC cited BA Digital Ventures, which operated under the name GetCoins, as a representative case. GetCoins had its virtual-asset service provider registration canceled in June after customer complaints were filed. AUSTRAC said the company was believed to have been used in an organized crypto investment scam and that it had begun responding in coordination with the National Anti-Scam Centre.

AUSTRAC did not disclose the full list of the 45 businesses that faced action or provide a breakdown between virtual-asset and remittance firms. Publicly disclosed registration actions involving virtual-asset service providers, or VASPs, included GetCoins, Cryptolink, Self Custody, Jam Xchange and Coinsec Australia.

Separately, AUSTRAC has opened an investigation into Western Union and suspended the operation of Cryptolink’s crypto ATM network.