Australia’s financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC said on Sept. 7 that it had cancelled, suspended or refused to renew 45 remittance and virtual asset provider registrations over the past year, showing how failures under the registration regime can remove a business’s permission to operate. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said businesses with cancelled registrations can no longer operate.
The regulator linked its earlier cancellation of GetCoins, a virtual asset service provider, to the disruption of alleged cryptocurrency investment scams. AUSTRAC identified the business as BA Digital Ventures Pty Ltd, trading as GetCoins, with the cancellation dated June 4, 2026. AUSTRAC said it worked with the National Anti-Scam Centre after customer complaints and requested information to assess the provider’s ability to manage money laundering risks.
According to AUSTRAC, GetCoins was allegedly exploited by organized cryptocurrency investment scams. The regulator described disruption of activity but gave no amount recovered for customers and no criminal finding against the provider. Across the annual actions, AUSTRAC cited insufficient capacity to begin or continue trading, dormant or inactive businesses, insolvency, inadequate registration, failures to report material changes, and significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk.
The broader enforcement also included the precautionary suspension of the Cryptolink ATM network. AUSTRAC stated that deregistered firms can no longer legally operate and that associated individuals were referred to local and international law enforcement agencies. Virtual asset service providers in Australia will now face more rigorous reviews as the country transitions toward an expanded financial licensing regime for crypto firms.
