Advice industry ‘going to need to work’ with regulators on rise of crypto

The COO of an investment platform has called on regulators to work with the industry as trends such as crypto continue to grow.

On a new episode of the ifa Show podcast, Integrated Portfolio Solutions’ Nigel Singh discussed the rise of crypto assets and how it will continue to get bigger over the next five to 10 years, noting a recent BetaShares survey findings that nearly 90 per cent of people with financial advisers have opened the discussion about crypto.

“So I think we’re going to have to understand what the way that we approach that is. I don’t think we can hide from it because it may be on the fringes now, but in the future, we might go there,” Mr Singh said.

“I really feel sorry for advisers at the moment, because there’s no guidance as to having these conversations. It’s not regulated and there’s no guidance that they can have, if this is what we should do, what we shouldn’t do.

“I think the regulators are going to have to lean in and we, as an industry, are probably going to need to work with them.”

Listen to the full podcast with Mr Singh here.

In April, ASIC commissioner Danielle Press said the corporate regulator is keen to learn more about the “threats and opportunities” of crypto-assets, and encouraged those in the sector to actively campaign against and interrupt scams.

Meanwhile in March, Minister for superannuation, financial services and the digital economy, Jane Hume, pledged minimalist regulation for the blockchain and crypto sector, saying the government would ensure “fit for purpose, technology neutral” regulation.

“We want to encourage innovation in crypto-assets – innovation creates jobs and growth,” Ms Hume said at a Blockchain Australia event.

“There are so many innovative use cases for crypto-assets, many of which are not far at all away from becoming mainstream. These include international payments, lending and borrowing, NFTs and asset tokenisation,” Ms Hume said.

Neil Griffiths

Neil is the Deputy Editor of the wealth titles, including ifa and InvestorDaily.

Neil is also the host of the ifa show podcast.