Rushing ‘token mapping’ could hurt Aussie crypto space – Fintech founder

Australian crypto entrepreneur and investor Fred Schebesta has described the Australian government’s prioritization of token mapping as “fantastic,” but warns that rushing it could have damaging effects on the economy.

Schebesta’s comments come after Australian Treasurer Jim Chalmers issued a statement on August 22 that “Treasury will prioritize token mapping work” in 2022 to show how “crypto-assets and related services should be regulated.”

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Schebesta believes that Australia already has a “new” crypto industry, but needs to “adapt to the other major markets and their regulations.”

Schebesta added that the “intricacies” of token mapping are not clear and “things are also changing.”

Schebesta is an Australian entrepreneur and investor – best known as the co-founder of Finder, an Australian comparison website. Schebesta is also one of the founders of the crypto investment fund Hive Empire Capital and an advisor to Balthazar, an NFT gaming platform.

He explained that if “we rush” – the token mapping exercise could repel crypto companies, especially if it is a “very different approach” to other countries.

Schebesta stressed that it’s not time to “have it out,” but take the time to “just take it easy and really, really do some deeper analysis.”

The token mapping announcement by Australia’s new Labor government came three months after it came to power, breaking a long silence on how it would approach crypto regulation in the country.

At the time, Treasurer Chalmers said the government wanted to reign in the “largely unregulated” crypto sector.

“As it is now, the crypto sector is largely unregulated and we need to do some work to find the balance so that we can embrace new and innovative technologies,” he said.

Related: Australia’s new government is finally signaling its stance on crypto regulation

While many in the industry hailed the announcement as an “important step” for the industry, some were disappointed that the country was not “further on the road” to regulatory certainty.

Australian lawyer Liam Hennessy, a partner at Gadens told Cointelegraph that Australia has been at the “front end of crypto development” but worries that the country is “slowly falling behind the UK and the US” due to its inability to create rules for those “in the crypto industry , especially those in financial services.”

Hennessy believes that while token mapping is important, it should not be the main focus of regulators.

“It should be secondary to actually creating some tax rules and regulations around licensing that we can give to our businesses that really need to hear it so they can compete with our global competitors.”

He fears Australia is falling into the trap of “thinking that a bit of government attention will solve the problems”, which he believes the token mapping exercise “is seen as to some extent”.

Schebesta said he was speaking at a Senate hearing in 2021 where he highlighted “Australia would have a huge influx of new businesses […] because it’s a safe, stable and great regulatory place to build your business,” adding that “tens of thousands” of jobs will be created “over the next two to three years.”