1. Getting SMSF Crypto Right: Compliance, Law & Strategy

Cryptocurrency investments by SMSFs are perfectly legal, but they don’t sit in a vacuum. Every trade, wallet, and decision must line up with the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (SIS Act) and the regulations that support it.

For crypto trustees, this means navigating a framework designed long before digital assets came along, and proving that your fund is playing by the same rules as everyone else.

There are four big areas that make up the compliance bedrock:

1. Sole Purpose Test: the SMSF must exist solely to provide retirement benefits. That means no present-day personal use, no convenient “test spends,” and no indirect benefits that aren’t about retirement.
2. Investment Strategy: the written plan for your SMSF has to explicitly cover crypto. If it doesn’t, you’ve got a problem come audit time.
3. Separation of Assets: SMSF assets must be completely separated from your personal or business holdings. With crypto, that means no shared wallets or exchange accounts.
4. Prohibition on Related Party Transactions: crypto isn’t classified as a listed security, so you can’t acquire it from yourself, a family member, or a related company. It must be purchased directly by the fund.