Australia could turn a A$24 billion prize into just A$1 billion unless rules change, OKX-backed report warns
Australia stands at a crossroads for digital finance. A new study backed by crypto exchange OKX and produced by the Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre estimates that tokenized markets, payments and digital assets could add about A$24 billion (roughly $17 billion) a year to the Australian economy — roughly 1% of GDP — if lawmakers modernize licensing and market infrastructure. The gains would come mainly from more efficient foreign exchange, capital markets and cross-border payments.
But under the country’s current regulatory path, Australia is on track to capture only A$1 billion of that potential by 2030, leaving the vast majority of the “digital finance dividend” unrealized. That A$23 billion gap is central to industry arguments urging faster reform.
OKX’s Australian CEO Kate Cooper told CoinDesk that policymakers repeatedly asked for hard data on crypto’s economic impact, and the report aims to fill that gap. Cooper stressed the importance of digital finance for national productivity — “productivity is the No. 1 issue” for the government — noting Australia’s productivity growth has been largely flat over the past decade.
Why OKX is doubling down on Australia
Many exchanges are prioritizing the U.S. and some rivals have pulled back from markets like Australia, the U.K. and EU, but OKX sees an opportunity in Australia’s regulatory environment. The exchange’s strategy targets “strategic markets” where onshore licensing and compliance requirements create a durable competitive advantage.
In practice, that means investing in local approvals and infrastructure to capture institutional flows as tokenized bonds, stablecoins and digital market infrastructure scale. Cooper argues that in a country with one of the world’s largest pension pools, being regulated and embedded locally is less about retail trading volume and more about long-term access to concentrated capital.
Policy choice will determine the outcome
If policymakers move quickly to modernize licensing and market rules, that concentrated capital could accelerate the country into a broader adoption phase and help realize the modeled A$24 billion benefit. If reform stalls, Cooper warns Australia risks staying stuck in a “death spiral of proof of concepts,” with most innovation and capital flowing offshore and the nation capturing only a fraction of the potential gains.
The report frames a clear policy choice: update the regulatory and market infrastructure to seize a sizable economic upside from digital finance — or let it largely pass Australia by.
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