Australia’s financial regulators intensified enforcement, removing thousands of scam sites, targeting crypto fraud, and mandating Binance Australia to undergo an AML audit within 28 days.
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) has removed over 14,000 investment scam and phishing sites since July 2023, including 3,015 linked to crypto scams, averaging 130 weekly takedowns. Scammers are increasingly using cloaking, AI-generated fake endorsements, and copycat site templates. In H1 2025, ASIC secured $57.5 million in civil penalties, six criminal convictions, 345 investigations, and wound up 95 companies tied to “pig butchering” scams involving $35.8 million in losses. Investment scams cost Australians $945 million in 2024 despite a 25.9% drop from 2022. ASIC also penalized AustralianSuper ($27m) and Active Super ($10.5m) for governance and greenwashing breaches. Separately, AUSTRAC ordered Binance Australia to appoint external auditors over serious AML and counter-terrorism financing concerns within 28 days, part of a broader compliance crackdown affecting 13 digital currency exchanges, with warnings issued to hundreds of inactive registered providers.