Australian Treasury Probes Regulator on HyperVerse Crypto Scheme

• Australian Financial Services Minister Queries ASIC on HyperVerse Crypto Scheme
• Global Warnings on HyperVerse
• Impact of the HyperVerse Scheme
• Founders Under Scrutiny
• Regulation Efforts in Australia

Australian Financial Services Minister Queries ASIC on HyperVerse Crypto Scheme

Australia's Assistant Treasurer and Minister for Financial Services, Stephen Jones, is reportedly querying the Australian Securities and Investments Commission's (ASIC) response to the HyperVerse crypto scheme. He intends to find out why ASIC, unlike other global counterparts, did not issue consumer warnings about the scheme, as per the Guardian's report.

Global Warnings on HyperVerse

As early as 2021, several countries, including the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Canada, Germany, and Hungary, issued warnings about the scheme. Jones expressed his concern, stating, This type of scheme works by convincing innocent people to invest their money into a product that might not exist, with the only source of income being money from new investors." He questioned why a warning was not issued, considering the potential risks associated with the operation.

Impact of the HyperVerse Scheme

The HyperVerse crypto scheme, as reported by Guardian Australia, caused significant financial losses for thousands of individuals, with the damage running into millions of dollars. The scheme was orchestrated by HyperTech and allegedly run by CEO Steven Reece Lewis, who appears non-existent.

Founders Under Scrutiny

Sam Lee and Ryan Xu, Australian entrepreneurs and founders of HyperTech, were also behind the defunct Australian Bitcoin$42,260 -0.64% firm, Blockchain Global. The company now owes creditors around $58m. Despite alerts from liquidators regarding the violation of law by Lee and Xu, ASIC expressed no immediate plans for penal action, according to the Guardian.

Neither ASIC nor HyperTech were available for immediate comment.

Regulation Efforts in Australia

Australia has proposed a new licensing regime for crypto exchanges and aims to draft legislation by 2024.

Edited by Jonathan Stoker