ASIC consults on updated CFD safeguards for digital assets, deadline November 9, 2026

Australia’s corporate regulator wants another decade of guardrails on contracts for difference. This time, digital assets are named in the rulebook. On October 12, 2026, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) published Consultation Paper CS 64. It proposes extending the existing CFD Product Intervention Order (PIO) for ten years, out to 2037, subject to ministerial approval. Stakeholders have until November 9, 2026 to send feedback. What ASIC is proposing The biggest change in CS 64 is definitional. The draft instrument would explicitly bring CFDs that settle through a transfer of digital assets into the order’s scope. Contracts that pay out in crypto, rather than cash, would no longer sit in an ambiguous corner of the rules. ASIC is also tidying up its vocabulary. The draft swaps the term “cryptoasset” for “digital asset” throughout. Under the proposal, initial margin requirements would apply to each CFD on its own. Traders could not net opposing positions against each other to shrink the collateral they post. Holding a long and a short on the same market would not cancel out for margin purposes. Each position would need its own cushion of money behind it. The...