CoinPort Pty Ltd has lodged a formal application with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) for an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL). The application was submitted on 12 August 2026, and marks the next major step in CoinPort’s regulatory journey as an Australian digital asset exchange.
What’s the news?
CoinPort has operated as an AUSTRAC-registered Virtual Asset Service Provider and Independent Remittance Dealer since February 2020, and is a member of the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA). With ASIC’s evolving guidance on when digital assets constitute financial products — including Information Sheet 225 Digital assets: Financial products and services, the ASIC class no-action letter for digital asset businesses (29 October 2025), and ASIC Instrument 2025/867 — CoinPort has taken the step of seeking a standard AFS licence to cover the parts of its business that fall within this framework.
What does an AFSL actually cover?
An AFSL is the core licence ASIC issues to businesses that provide “financial services” in relation to “financial products” — think financial product advice, dealing in a product, market making, and custody. It comes with an extensive set of ongoing obligations: responsible managers who must demonstrate relevant competence, a compliance committee, documented risk management and outsourcing frameworks, internal dispute resolution, minimum financial resource requirements (including net tangible assets and surplus liquid funds tests where client money is held), mandatory breach reporting to ASIC, and annual audits.
Not every digital asset is a financial product, and not every crypto business needs an AFSL for everything it does — but where a token or a service crosses into ASIC’s definition of a financial product, a licence is required. CoinPort’s application reflects that some of the assets and services on our platform sit inside that perimeter, and some don’t.
What CoinPort has applied for
The application seeks a standard AFS licence authorising CoinPort, for retail and wholesale clients, to:
across a product scope that includes derivatives (limited to over-the-counter dealing, with retail access on a request-only basis and no continuous quoting), managed investment scheme interests (excluding IDPS), non-cash payment facilities, securities, and other miscellaneous financial investment products — reflecting the mixed nature of the digital assets CoinPort lists, from payment stablecoins to wrapped tokens to potential security tokens.
What doesn’t change
CoinPort’s business model stays the same. We act as principal in every trade, and revenue is generated solely from the bid–ask spread between our wholesale sourcing rate and the retail rate quoted on the platform — no trading commissions, and no standalone custody fees. Custody remains incidental to trading: client digital assets are held in segregated wallets, with the majority secured in cold storage under multi-signature control and reconciled daily against on-chain balances, and AUD client funds are held on trust separately from CoinPort’s operating funds.
Why this matters for our clients
An AFSL brings a further layer of formal, ASIC-supervised obligations on top of our existing AUSTRAC registration and AFCA membership — around financial resources, risk management, internal dispute resolution, and responsible manager oversight. For clients, that means an additional layer of regulatory accountability sitting behind the platform you already trade on.
What happens next
Lodging the application is the start of ASIC’s assessment process, not the end of it — ASIC will review the submission and may seek further information before deciding whether to issue a licence, and there’s no guaranteed timeframe or outcome. CoinPort will continue to operate as normal, under its existing AUSTRAC registration, throughout the review.
“Applying for an AFSL is a natural next step for a business that’s been operating compliantly in this space since 2020. We think Australia’s approach to digital asset regulation is heading in the right direction, and we want CoinPort to be ahead of that curve, not catching up to it.” — Peter Cooney, Director, CoinPort
“This is about giving our clients more confidence, not changing how they trade with us. The platform, the pricing model, and the way we look after client assets stay exactly as they are.” — Kent Kingsley, CEO, CoinPort
(Quotes above are drafts for leadership review and approval prior to publication.)
Learn more: ASIC Information Sheet 225 — Digital assets: Financial products and services
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Kind regards
The CoinPort Exchange Team