Following the directive of The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (Austrac) in December which sought to extend the anti-money laundering regulation to cryptocurrency, the centre announced that 310 digital currency exchange companies have registered with them since April 2018. The step was taken by Austrac to ensure that crypto-exchanges also adopt a system that identifies, and mitigate risk associated with money laundering and terrorist financing through their system. The directive includes knowing their customers and reporting suspicious transaction, especially those exceeding AUS10,000 to Austrac.
Austrac said it has not been monitoring the volume of exchanges and the total amount of money circulating in the digital currency exchanges. However, when asked if there is a possibility that the bill passed in October to punish any entity that makes or accept cash payments of AU$10,000 or more would push people to cryptocurrency, it said it is unlikely possible as the price is volatile and there is a limit to using cryptocurrency for business transaction every day, but regardless, it is monitoring the potential risks associated with digital assets.
