Australia’s financial regulator, Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), has pledged to put crypto assets and decentralized finance (DeFi) firmly in its sights over the next four years. The regulator intends to focus on “digitally enabled misconducts” and to protect investors “from harms posed by crypto-assets.” Given the ASIC’s history of anti-crypto sentiments, such an announcement could be perceived as hostile, but at least it contains a promise to implement some regulatory framework that is still absent.

And, it is hardly a coincidence that the announcement came only days after Australia’s new ruling government announced plans to move forward with regulation of the crypto sector by conducting a “token mapping” exercise by the end of the year.

At the same time, Australia’s Northern Territory Racing Commission (NTRC) is preparing to adopt cryptocurrencies as a wagering option. The NTRC has sent a private document out to licensees, which seeks input and feedback on what the regulatory landscape could look like to get crypto wagering off the ground in the Northern Territory. Should this go according to plan in the Northern Territory, other state gambling regulators would likely follow.

The South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance cleared that virtual asset airdrops, staking rewards, and hard forked tokens would be subject to a gift tax under the Inheritance and Gift Tax Act despite the postponement of crypto gains tax to 2025. Any free virtual asset transfer by crypto exchanges in the form of airdrops, staking rewards and hard-forked tokens would attract a gift tax, which will be “levied on the third party to whom the virtual asset is transferred free of charge.”

MakerDAO co-founder Rune