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July 12, 2026 β€’ 12 mins
Australia's High Court has ruled that Block Earner's old Earner product was a financial product, giving crypto earn, yield and rewards providers a much clearer legal line to deal with. The episode explains why the ruling matters for Australian crypto users, why it does not mean crypto itself has been banned, and why products that promise passive returns may now need the right licences before operating in Australia.

Peter breaks down how Block Earner's Earner product worked, why the court compared it to a bank-style deposit product, and what changed after all seven High Court judges agreed the product required a financial services licence. He also looks at the practical impact for users, platforms and smaller crypto companies that may face higher compliance costs or choose to leave the Australian market.

The episode then separates custodial yield products from Cardano's native delegation model. Plain Cardano staking keeps ADA in the user's own wallet, does not pool custody with a stake pool operator, and appears to sit on the safer side of the legal line, while more complex staking services, guaranteed returns, liquid staking or pooled custody arrangements need proper legal advice.

Chapters:
0:00 Did Australia Ban Earn?
1:06 Products Needing Licences
2:12 Who Block Earner Was
3:17 Labels Do Not Matter
4:15 The High Court Ruling
5:02 Block Earner Moved On
5:31 Why Guardrails Matter
7:32 Does ADA Staking Count?
8:41 Cardano Delegation Difference
9:55 Where Staking Gets Murky
10:38 What It Means
11:27 Wrap Up

What you'll learn:
- Australia's High Court ruled that Block Earner's old Earner product was a financial product because it let users seek a return and had derivative-like exposure to crypto prices.
- Block Earner did not have the required financial services licence for Earner, but that product had already been shut down in 2022 before the case reached the High Court.
- Block Earner has since moved to a regulated model and secured an Australian Credit Licence in May 2026 for its crypto-backed lending business.
- Australian crypto platforms offering fixed earn, yield or rewards products may need licences, clearer risk disclosure and stronger compliance standards.
- The ruling does not ban crypto, seize coins or automatically outlaw every staking arrangement; it targets products that take user funds and promise returns.
- Cardano's native delegation model is materially different from custodial pooling because ADA remains in the user's wallet and never goes to the stake pool operator.
- Stake pool operators and staking service providers should get proper legal advice, especially if they custody assets, pool funds, issue liquid staking tokens or guarantee returns.

Links & References:
Block Earner becomes the first crypto company in Australia to secure an Australian Credit Licence:
- https://link.learncardano.io/4cBg4V
Australia's High Court backs regulator in Block Earner crypto yield case:
- https://link.learncardano.io/8p3G4R
ASIC successful in High Court Block Earner appeal:
- https://link.learncardano.io/JBZ86r
Australian Securities and Investments Commission v Web3 Ventures Pty Ltd:
- https://link.learncardano.io/kVaKTw

Website: https://link.learncardano.io/bQ68Rc
X/Twitter: https://link.learncardano.io/3a1Qtv

Disclaimer: This content is for educational purposes only. Nothing constitutes financial advice.

DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational and educational purposes only and is not financial, investment, or legal advice. I am not affiliated with, nor compensated by, the project discussed—no tokens, payments, or incentives received. I do not hold a stake in the project, including private or future allocations. All views are my own, based on public information. Always do your own research and consult a licensed advisor before investing. Crypto investments carry high risk, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. I am not responsible for any decisions you make based on this content.

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
So did the Australian government just make earning on your
crypto illegal?

Speaker 2 (00:04):
Kind of?

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Not quite, But what has happened is that the High
Court of Australia has just ruled against Block Earner's product
where you could earn yield and said that that was
illegal because they it is essentially a financial product and
they didn't have the licenses for it. And this is
the bit that everyone's missing. This doesn't just hit block Earner.

(00:26):
It draws a line in the sand and says anyone
that is offering any kind of earn yield or rewards
product in Australia needs a financial license and they've made
this very clear. Now, so is government here stepping on
the industry and trying to clamp down on things. I
don't think so, and I reckon by the end of

(00:46):
this video you kind of agree with me.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Here as well.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
Now, more importantly, I'm not a financial planner, I'm not
an accountant, and I'm definitely not a lawyer. So please
seek financial advice and legal advice if you are affected
or interested in any of these aspects for your own
crypto holdings or owned investments. Now, if you've got something
that pays you a return such as earning on your account,

(01:12):
or yield product or rewards balance that slowly grows over time.
The Highest Court of Australia just said something big and
essentially all of those are financial products. And in Australia
you can't just offer a financial product to the public.
You need a license for it, and they call this
Australian Financial Services License or AFSL for short. So your

(01:36):
coins aren't banned. Not, that's not the fear here. The
fear is that the product paying you passive returns. Any
Australian platform that is offering something like this either needs
to hold a license or is essentially breaking the law.
So some of these products will disappear, and some of
these platforms be pulled out of Australia all together, and

(01:56):
others will eventually, hopefully it will get licenses and pass
on the costs to you. So if you use one
of these, keep watching because they will directly affect how
you interact with crypto and what you may be doing
with your crypto assets. So who is block Earner and
what did they do? So? Block Earner is the trading

(02:18):
name for a company called Web three Ventures and back
in twenty twenty two, in the peak of the bull
run there or diminishing down from that bull run. For
about eight months they ran a product called Earner, and
the pitch was pretty simple. You've seen it thousands of times.
You deposit your money into the platform and they give
you a fixed return. Theirs was around seven percent, and

(02:39):
back in twenty twenty two, that was a pretty good deal.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
So here's how it works.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
You put in Australian dollars, they turned that into crypto
by order conversion or whatever they did, and then they
let that out to other crypto products earning a higher rate.
They kept the difference and then paid you seven percent
borrowing on that. So they blow lend high and then
keep the margin. So it made sense for them. But

(03:05):
what Block Earner didn't have was a financial services license
for this. Their argument was that this isn't a financial product,
this is crypto lending, so the rules didn't apply there.
And here's the best part of the case. The High
Court looked at that and said the label doesn't matter.
Calling a loan in your terms and conditions doesn't change

(03:30):
what it really is. They use the analogy that now
is it really clearly here, and I think this is
really good think about a bank savings account. You put
money into the account, the bank pulls everyone's deposits together
and then lends that money out. That's how banks work,
and they pay you a cut for that.

Speaker 2 (03:50):
Nobody argues a.

Speaker 1 (03:52):
Saving accounts is a financial product, and the court said
Earner would work the exact same way. So if it's
acts like a deposit, the fact that there is crypto
in the middle doesn't really matter. It doesn't make a difference.
You put money in, that's your deposit. You earn interest
on that, whatever it is. So it's a financial product.

(04:15):
So what was the ruling Exactly On the seventeenth of
June twenty twenty six, all seven judges agreed that Erner
was a financial product, and they gave two reasons. First,
it was a way for people to make an investment,
and second it counted as a derivative because what you
got back rose and fell with the crypto prices beneath it.

(04:36):
So either one means that you need a license, and
Blockerner didn't have that and it was done. But let
me just point something out here for you guys. So
first off, this was block Earner's old product. Erner got
shut down back in twenty twenty two before the case
really got going. So this isn't block Earners is in
trouble today. This is something that was stopped years ago,

(04:58):
so as soon as it started going through the process,
they were like, let's stop it right here. So second
blocker owner has moved on and gone legit. So in
May twenty twenty six this year they got an Australian
credit license, the first crypto platform in the country to
get one. They run their own lending properly now, So overall,

(05:20):
the sky isn't falling. The government isn't stepping on earning
products here, but the legal rule is now locked in
at the highest level, and the rule is what reshapes
the whole industry. So the question I promised to answer,
is the government overreaching, strangling innovation, doing what regulators always do.

Speaker 2 (05:40):
I don't think so. And here's why. I think.

Speaker 1 (05:42):
What these fixed yield products really are a company takes
your money, promises you a set return, then goes and
does something risky with it. Behind the scenes. You've got
no control and often no idea what is going on
and what they're doing. Where you have seen this before
is like Celsius and Block five Voyager, and all these

(06:05):
really big crypto names that were just printing money.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
Go belly up a year after.

Speaker 1 (06:11):
It's a whole big graveyard of earn eight or even
twenty percent with Celsius that was insane on your crypto products,
and it blew up and took people's savings down with them,
so regular people, not Wales.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
It was disastrous if you're around that time.

Speaker 1 (06:26):
So it is good to see some legal regulations in
place here to protect regular users, regular crypto holders from
these type of practices. A point of a license is simple.
If you're going to take public's money and promise return,
you have to meet some sort of standards here. You
have to hold enough capital, spell out the risks, have

(06:48):
grown ups in the room, and we ask the exact
same things of banks and brokers. So if it's crypto,
you've got to play by the same rules no matter what. Now,
there is a fair counter argument here, and rules like
this do push some innovation overseas.

Speaker 2 (07:04):
Licenses.

Speaker 1 (07:05):
They do cost money, and a license is pricey enough
that small players can't compete, so you can end up
with fewer choices and bigger companies, and that's a real impact.
Big players just come in and swallow all the market.
But when the deal is give us money and trust us,
I'd rather have some guardrails and protections there rather than

(07:27):
the wild west of what crypto is. So on this
one I reckon the court got it right. If you're
a user in Australia, check your products. If you're earning
a fixed and guaranteed return on an Aussie platform, look
for whether there is a license or they're applying for one.
At least if they're paying yield and they're not on

(07:49):
the path, that's probably a red flag there, does taking
your aid to get caught up by all of this
rules and regulations. Do I need a license as a
stakehool operation. That's a really big question here, And here's
what the actual law says, and it's good news for
how Kadana works. The line is about pulling of custody.

(08:12):
If a service holds your assets for you, or pulls
everyone's funds together to hit some sort of minimum, that's
when it bunctual product and needs a license. And that's
a headache for something like Ethereum, where you need thirty
two ether to run a validator pool. So small holders

(08:32):
have to group together, put their funds that if together
into a pool a validator to earn those rewards. So
that's a big difference here, and that this is where
Kadano's delegation strategy works really well. You as a Cadina holder,
all you need to do is point your wallet to
a particular staple.

Speaker 2 (08:52):
You still have custody.

Speaker 1 (08:54):
Of your ATA assets in your wallet. It never leaves
your wallet, it never goes to the stapool operator, so
I never see it as Akadina State board operator. And
that's one of the big benefits in the Caadana ecosystem,
the self custody staking where you can earn your AIDA
staking rewards, help secure the network, and it doesn't touch

(09:16):
any of this type of rules and regulations. And I
think this was a lot of foresight in the planning
of how Kadano works many many years ago, so this
is absolutely brilliant. So all of this lines up with
the laws here in Australia, which is fantastic, and they
call it direct staking, which treats it as a technical
service and not a financial product. And the new Digital

(09:37):
Assets Framework even has a specific carve out for staking,
which is absolutely brilliant. So Australia is doing something definitely
right here. So plane delegation, the normal Cadano setup sits
on the good side of this line, this new law
that was being put in place, So where it does
get murky is fancy stuff where holding people's co for them,

(10:00):
guaranteeing them a return liquid staking tokens or pulling some
tokens or pulling smallholders together. That's where things get murky.
So more of a service add on on top of
plane delegation, the more likely it needs a license. So
one thing I just want to say clearly here for

(10:21):
anyone out there, if you run a stakepool, if you
are running a staking service, don't listen to some random
youtubeer that you're watching for your answer. Get proper advice
for your setup. But basic CONDONI delegation model looks like
it's completely built on the right side of the law here,
all right, So let's round things up here, let's bring
it home. The High Court of Australia didn't ban crypto,

(10:44):
It didn't brand completely banned earning crypto products. It didn't
seize anyone's coins. It confirmed one thing at the highest level,
if a product takes your money, So no matter what
you call it, you need that license, so that should
shake up the yield products that are in the space
at the moment, and the ones that are following the
law will survive. So look up the various staking products

(11:07):
out there, all the platforms in Australia and the ones
that do have the licenses are the good ones out there.
And it's also really good news for those that looking
for playing Kadanos steaking Native Kandana steaking. It's business as usual.

Speaker 2 (11:20):
So if you're.

Speaker 1 (11:21):
Delegating to any pool out there, such as my own pool,
aid to OZ, you're good to go.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
It's on the right side of law, all right. Guys.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
If you learned something from this video, make sure you
hit that thumbs up that like subscribe. The notification bell
will keep you up to date with everything that's happening
in the crypto space.

Speaker 2 (11:37):
And if you.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
Want to support the channel, I've got YouTube memberships down below.
You get early access to videos and I've got to
buy me a coffee links there too, so that's.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
A great way of supporting the channel.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
It's a really easy way to keep me going and
get these videos out there on a regular basis.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
And stay positive, guys. I'll see you in the next
video
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