Australia's financial crime regulator AUSTRAC has removed 45 remittance and virtual asset service provider (VASP) registrations from its registers over the past year. According to reports from AUSTRAC and Cointelegraph, the cancellations, suspensions, and refused renewals span the past year as part of the regulator's comprehensive crackdown on financial crime. The Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre has referred individuals behind some of those businesses to law enforcement authorities. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas confirmed that businesses whose registrations were canceled can no longer operate, emphasizing the permanent nature of these regulatory actions. Thomas stated that the actions reinforce the regulator's expectations of industry, noting that "the rapid movement of money across borders can create some of the highest ML/TF risks."
AUSTRAC listed several grounds for the regulatory actions against the 45 firms. As reported by AUSTRAC and Cointelegraph, some businesses were dormant or inactive, while others were insolvent or had gone long stretches without providing any designated service. A lack of operational capacity prevented some from starting or continuing to trade, and some held the wrong registration or failed to notify AUSTRAC of material changes to their operations. The remainder posed a significant risk of money laundering or terrorism financing. AUSTRAC specifically cited failures to report material changes, incorrect registrations and cases presenting significant money laundering or terrorism financing risks as key factors in the regulatory decisions. Thomas explained that "we are proactively identifying and removing businesses that do not meet the expectation set by the registration regime and we will continue to remove businesses that pose a significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk."
AUSTRAC named BA Digital Ventures Pty Ltd, which traded as GetCoins, in the announcement. According to AUSTRAC and Cointelegraph, the regulator worked with the National Anti-Scam Centre (NASC) after receiving customer complaints and then requested information on the company's operations to assess whether GetCoins could manage its money-laundering exposure. Organized cryptocurrency investment scams allegedly exploited the VASP, as reported by AUSTRAC. The cancellation of GetCoins' virtual asset registration was undertaken on June 4, 2026, three months before AUSTRAC's September announcement, with the regulator stating that the action helped disrupt the organized cryptocurrency investment scam activity. AUSTRAC did not name all 45 businesses or provide a breakdown between crypto and remittance providers, but its public VASP register lists recent actions involving GetCoins, Cryptolink, Self Custody, Jam Xchange and Coinsec Australia.
The regulatory sweep occurs alongside other recent enforcement actions in the payments and cryptocurrency sectors. As reported by AUSTRAC and Cointelegraph, the regulator opened an investigation into Western Union on September 1 and suspended Cryptolink in August, taking 96 crypto ATMs offline. CEO Brendan Thomas emphasized that AUSTRAC's message to industry is clear: "understand and manage your risks and meet your reporting obligations, or you may not be able to continue operating." Thomas tied the tighter oversight to the agency's annual risk update and indicated AUSTRAC will continue removing businesses that pose significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk. "Financial crime operates across borders, and we work closely with our domestic and international partners to strengthen the financial system not just in Australia, but globally," Thomas stated, highlighting the regulator's global cooperation efforts.
