Australia have joined the ranks of countries issuing tighter regulations for cryptocurrency exchanges working within their jurisdictions. We must note that this is not necessarily a bad thing, with countries such as Japan making similar moves, despite being at the forefront of cryptocurrency adoption worldwide. According to CCN, Australia’s Financial Intelligence Agency, AUSTRAC has announced that cryptocurrency exchanges need to register with themselves and comply with the new regulations set at the start of April. Registration must be complete by the 14of May 2018, giving current exchanges just over a month to take action. According to CCN, AUSTRAC have said: “Effective immediately, DCEs (digital currency exchanges) with a business operation located in Australia must now register with AUSTRAC and meet the Government’s AML/CTF compliance and reporting obligations.” These forms of regulation have been designed to stamp out the likely hood of devastating fraud and attacks that have taken place on cryptocurrency exchanges in the past, namely the $530million hack that took place within Japanese exchange Coincheck in January. By setting rules for the exchanges that dictate how data should be handled among other things, governments are hoping to establish a much safer environment for people to engage within cryptocurrency trading in their countries. According to AUSTRAC CEO, Nicole Rose: “AUSTRAC now has increased opportunities to facilitate the sharing of financial intelligence and information relating to the use of digital currencies, such as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, with its industry and government partners.” The word regulation does not fit into the cryptocurrency dictionary very well. In fact, many people do fear the word. Rightfully so, at the end of the day cryptocurrency has developed through anonymity and through a culture of anti-establishment, therefore regulations are met with hostility within communities. It is important to consider though that certain regulations, such as those established in Australia and of course Japan, can promote a much safer environment for trading to occur within. Surely, you would feel safer engaging with cryptocurrency, if you had assurance that your investments are at least safe from criminals? Obviously, regulation will never make the overall markets safe from volatility, but if at the very least data protection can be ensured, more countries should be looking at Australia and setting up similar plans of their own.