Australia’s financial intelligence regulator AUSTRAC said Sept. 7 that it canceled, suspended or refused to renew 45 remittance and virtual asset provider registrations over the past year, highlighting how failures under the registration regime can cost businesses permission to operate.
The disclosure covers both sectors, with AUSTRAC saying the actions removed those businesses from its registers. AUSTRAC CEO Brendan Thomas said businesses with canceled registrations can no longer operate.
AUSTRAC also linked its earlier cancellation of GetCoins, a virtual asset service provider, to disruption of alleged cryptocurrency investment scams. The regulator identified the business as BA Digital Ventures Pty Ltd, trading as GetCoins. Its registration decision record dates the cancellation to June 4, 2026, placing the decision three months before the September announcement.
AUSTRAC said it worked with the National Anti-Scam Centre on GetCoins following customer complaints. It requested information about the provider’s operations to assess its ability to manage money laundering risks.
The regulator said GetCoins was allegedly exploited by organized cryptocurrency investment scams. AUSTRAC said its work with the anti-scam center and the cancellation helped disrupt organized investment scam activity.
AUSTRAC described alleged exploitation of the provider by scams, without establishing that GetCoins itself organized them. The disclosure reports disruption of activity, but gives no amount recovered for customers or criminal finding against the provider.
Registration controls access to the market
AUSTRAC’s guidance says businesses providing digital currency exchange or virtual asset services must be registered. Losing that registration therefore removes the permission needed to provide those services.
The regulator says it can refuse an application, suspend or cancel registration, or refuse renewal if it considers a business an unacceptable money laundering, terrorism financing or other serious crime risk. It can also impose registration conditions where it identifies unacceptable risk.
The powers apply at different points in a provider’s relationship with the regulator: an application can be refused before registration, while an existing registration can face suspension, cancellation or nonrenewal. GetCoins appears in the cancellation category of the official record.
Across the annual actions, AUSTRAC cited problems ranging from insufficient capacity to begin or continue trading and dormant or inactive businesses to insolvency, inadequate registration and failures to report material changes. Significant money laundering or terrorism financing risk was also among the grounds it described.
Those are reasons given for the broader enforcement activity, rather than a list of findings against GetCoins. The announcement gives no breakdown of the 45 by sector or type of decision. The figure cannot be read as 45 crypto firms losing registration through cancellation alone.