Australia’s financial regulator has secured a legal victory against financial services company BPS Financial Pty Ltd (BPS), with the Federal Court ordering it to pay a A$14 million ($9.3 million) penalty for promoting and operating its Qoin Wallet product.
The ruling follows years of legal action brought by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), which accused BPS of operating an unlicensed financial services business while making misleading claims about its cryptocurrency-linked payment product.
In Tuesday’s news releaseThe regulator said BPS was promoting the Qoin wallet as a cashless payment method linked to the Qoin digital token. However, the court found that between January 2020 and mid-2023, the company issued a product and provided financial advice without holding an Australian financial services license, in breach of the Corporations Act.
“Given the nature of these products, providers must be appropriately licensed and authorized and investors must be able to make decisions based on clear and correct representations, particularly as crypto products can be highly volatile, inherently risky and complex,” ASIC Chairman Joe Longo said.
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BPS Financial hit with penalties, restrictions
The penalty imposed included $1.3 million for unauthorized conduct and $8 million for misleading and deceitful statements. In her precipitateJudge Downes described BPS’s actions as “serious and unlawful misconduct”, noting the involvement of senior management and the company’s inadequate compliance systems.
In addition to the financial penalty, the court imposed a number of restrictions on BPS. The company is banned from operating financial services activities without a license for the next 10 years. BPS was also ordered to publish court-ordered advertising on the Qoin Wallet app and website and paid most of ASIC’s legal costs.
In 2022, ASIC commenced civil penalty proceedings against BPS Financial over alleged misleading claims and unlicensed conduct in relation to the Qoin token.
In earlier judgments handed down in 2024 and upheld on appeal in 2025, the court found that BPS engaged in misleading and deceitful conduct by making false statements about the Qoin wallet. These included claims that the product was officially approved or registered, that Qoin tokens could be easily exchanged for fiat currency or other cryptoassets, and that the token was widely accepted by merchants.
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ASIC relaxes licensing rules for stablecoins
In December, ASIC finalized up-to-date exemptions to simplify the distribution of stablecoins and wrapped tokens, eliminating the need for intermediaries to hold separate Australian financial services licenses.
The measures enable companies to benefit from ‘omnibus accounts’ with proper record-keeping, extending previous relief and reducing compliance costs for businesses operating in the digital assets and payments sectors.
On Tuesday report titled ‘Key Issues Outlook for 2026’, ASIC’s Longo identified retail exposure to unclear private credit, operational failures in pensions, high-risk investment sales threatening retirement savings, consumer harm from artificial intelligence and regulatory gaps in digital assets and fintech as key risk areas in the coming year.
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