Overview
- The High Court, which handed down its judgment on Wednesday, ruled unanimously 7–0 that Block Earner’s former Earner fixed‑yield product qualified as a financial product both as a facility for investment and as a derivative.
- The ruling set aside a Full Federal Court victory for Block Earner from April 2025 and sent the case back to the Full Federal Court to decide what penalties, if any, should be imposed.
- ASIC began civil penalty proceedings in November 2022 after Block Earner voluntarily closed the Earner product that ran from March to November 2022 and was offered without an Australian Financial Services Licence.
- Block Earner has already exited yield products and secured an Australian Credit Licence in May 2026 as it moves to develop crypto‑backed home loans that would let borrowers use Bitcoin as collateral.
- By endorsing a technology‑neutral reading of the Corporations Act, the judgment gives regulators a clear basis to apply existing licensing and disclosure rules to crypto yield products and may prompt further enforcement and business model shifts in Australia’s crypto market.