Openmarkets report cautions Australia risks losing tokenisation opportunity to offshore markets

Trading and wealth management fintech Openmarkets Group (OMG) has today launched a new industry report finding that Australia has built the foundations for tokenised finance faster than it has built the intermediaries needed to operate them.

The State of Digital Assets in Australia was launched at an industry gathering convened by Openmarkets, featuring speakers from leading digital asset firms including Ripple, Macropod and BTC Markets.

The report highlights that Australia has the building blocks for on-chain capital markets in place – including greater regulatory clarity, a developing AUD stablecoin market and validated infrastructure – but lacks the licensed intermediaries ready to operate across the tokenised value chain.

This comes as the global market quickly develops, with forecasts projecting the global tokenised-asset market could reach US$16 trillion by 203o, while a Digital Finance Cooperative Research Centre (DFCRC) estimate puts the potential economic gains from digital-finance innovation at around $24 billion a year for Australia.

Dan Jowett, CEO of Openmarkets, said Australia’s progress on infrastructure has outpaced its progress on the intermediary layer that operates it.

“Tokenisation will re-platform Australian capital markets over the coming decade and Australia has the regulatory framework, the infrastructure and the products to enable this. What it needs now are more intermediaries ready to operate the tokenised value chain and that’s what we’re focused on building at Openmarkets,” Jowett said.

“We have a critical window to capitalise on the growing market opportunity, as without Australian participants ready to operate this layer, capital, talent and activity will gravitate offshore to jurisdictions moving more quickly, such as Singapore, Dubai and the United States,” Jowett concluded.

Openmarkets is registered on AUSTRAC’s Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) Register, effective 16 July 2026, and is in advanced discussions with issuance and distribution partners to add digital assets across three areas: distribution, origination and custody, and cross-border global distribution.

The State of Digital Assets in Australia is available at: www.openmarkets.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/Openmarkets_Report-StateofDigital_v3-110826.pdf