The Full Federal Court has thrown out ASIC’s appeal over Finder’s crypto yield product, Finder Earn, confirming the 2024 decision that it was not a debenture and therefore not a financial product under the Corporations Act.
Justices Stewart, Cheeseman and Meagher delivered the judgment on Thursday, agreeing with Justice Markovic’s March 2024 ruling. The court ordered ASIC to pay Wallet Ventures’ (formerly Finder Wallet) costs.
Finder’s Global CEO and Co-Founder, Frank Restuccia, naturally welcomed the decision.
“We are delighted with this outcome, which confirms that Finder was compliant with our regulatory obligations in offering Finder Earn to our customers,” he said.
“We understand and respect the importance of good regulation to protect consumers and we engaged openly and proactively with ASIC from the outset.”
ASIC had argued the product amounted to a debenture because customers transferred funds, bought TrueAUD stablecoins, and received a fixed return. The Full Court upheld the primary judge’s view that this arrangement didn’t meet the statutory definition.
ASIC said it was “carefully considering the decision and its implications”.
“This decision highlights the challenges in the current regulatory framework concerning debentures and the application of the existing financial services regime to products involving crypto assets,” the corporate regulator said.
ASIC has been testing the legal boundaries of crypto through several cases, but also lost its appeal against Block Earner in April.
Finder closed its crypto trading platform, Wallet Ventures, earlier this year, inking a deal with Swyftx to transfer users to its digital assets exchange.
Finder cofounder and self-proclaimed ‘Crypto King of Australia’, Fred Schebesta, called the case proof that “innovation always moves faster than regulation,” and urged more collaboration between startups and regulators to “ensure a collaborative approach to both progress and compliance.”
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