ASIC looks to progress tokenisation

Mike Taylor

Managing Editor/Publisher, Financial Newswire

9 March 2026

The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has flagged convening an industry and expert roundtable in May to further develop its approach to tokenisation.

ASIC chair, Joe Longo last week flagged the roundtable to the Asia Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association noting that the regulator is seeking to work with senior financial market experts and practitioners on future regulatory models.

“Tokenisation is a significant evolution in financial market infrastructure, with great potential, but we don’t yet know how well it performs at scale against other models,” Longo said. “In Australia, we have to move beyond pilots and proof-of-concept trials, to roll-outs at meaningful scale.”

“This said, ASIC has licensed FCX to trade and settle shares in private companies and units in managed investment schemes. This makes it one of the first licensed tokenised markets in the world.

“And ASIC has also granted licences to a number of firms to provide tokenised assets and stablecoins,” the ASIC chair said.

“Tokenisation at scale will require the cooperation and coordinated efforts of buy and sell side participants, market infrastructure and service providers, and policy-makers and regulators. This is definitely a team sport.

“This is why ASIC has commissioned research on whether there are any regulatory and legal barriers to asset tokenisation, and what, if anything, we may need to do to facilitate further development.

“We see this research as a launchpad into a broader conversation, so we also expect to convene an industry and expert roundtable in May to help us progress these issues when this work is complete,” Longo said.