Trading cryptocurrencies e.g. bitcoins in itself isn't illegal in Australia as long as the exchanges are registered and implement KYC, AML and CTF policies as directed by the governing bodies. This is what gave ISX a 'breakthrough' opportunity - by helping upcoming exchanges more easily meet their compliance requirements and the rave was all about crypto then, as the established providers were reluctant to take on ISX"s patented KYCC.
There's no wrong doing on ISX's part as long as ISX only does business with entities registered with/approved by AUSTRAC, ASIC and whatever other regulatory bodies they had to register with.
What may be considered illegal (and which the ASX frowns at) is when a company issues ICOs (initial coin offerings) for the purpose of scamming consumers. A significant number of companies previously issued these and the coins were purchased by retail investors but had no intrinsic value. Regulation in this area is still grey (I believe) and each case may need to be investigated individually.
Part of the challenges I see with the ASX is lack of in-depth understanding of how these things work so they can't keep up. And that's part of the restructuring that's been happening - instead of having compliance officers per region, they are now looking into compliance officers per service (who actually understand what they are looking for). But it doesn't take rocket science to work out that the ASX thought it had something fishy on ISX in relation to cryptocurrencies from the initial pattern of questioning, but it turned out to be a false alarm. Why the ASX couldn't let go and admit its mistake is what's still a mystery.
ISX Price at posting:
$1.07 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
