New bill leaves out digital currencies from cash payment limit in Australia

Australia recently passed a new draft bill that imposes limits on cash payments, while cryptocurrencies have been excluded. This was supposedly intended to prevent innovations from being stifled.

The details with regards to this draft bill are included in the explanatory memorandum that the Australian government provided a few days ago. Simply put, any purchase of goods or services involving cash that goes over 10,000 AUD ($6,900) would be banned. The exception is digital currencies since the market is still too young for any effective limits to be put in place.

“Digital currency is a new and developing area in the Australian economy. Unlike physical currency, it does not have a firmly established regulatory framework or industry structure. This makes it difficult to apply the cash payment limit in a way that would not largely prevent the use of digital currency in Australia or significantly stifle innovation in the sector,” the memorandum reads.

This is a surprising sentiment coming from a country which has been quite strict with regards to cryptocurrency, Cointelegraph reports. For example, Australian authorities are aiming for crypto traders for tax reasons and want more information from exchanges.

Even with this memorandum, authorities still appear to be unconvinced that the cryptocurrencies are being used for illicit activities in the country. This is based on the section that reads:

“At the same time, there is little current evidence that digital currency is presently being used in Australia to facilitate black economy activities. Given this, the Government has decided at the present time to effectively carve digital currency out from the cash payment limit.”

As of now, this draft bill has yet to be approved. If it does end up being greenlit, however, any transactions that exceed the imposed limits will no longer be allowed to involve cash come Jan. 1, 2020.