Australian fintech Finder has won against ASIC’s appeal, which claimed its Finder Earn yield program breached financial regulations.
Australia-based fintech firm Finder has won its legal dispute with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) over its crypto yield product, Finder Earn.
The case, which spanned three years, concluded on July 24, when the court dismissed ASIC’s appeal, effectively upholding the earlier ruling that cleared Finder’s yield-generating product.
The Australian Federal Court, comprising Justices Stewart, Cheeseman, and Meagher, upheld the earlier ruling that Finder Wallet and its Finder Earn product complied with financial regulations.
The court reaffirmed that Finder Earn is not a financial product and therefore falls outside the scope of Australia’s financial product laws.
This decision follows ASIC’s appeal of a March 2025 judgment, which had similarly found that the yield-generating product did not breach national financial regulations.
ASIC’s Case Against Finder
Finder Earn is a crypto yield product that existed from February to November 2022. Customers could convert AUD into a stablecoin called TrueAUD, which they could then allocate to Finder Wallet to earn a fixed return from 4% to 6%.
This case looked at whether a cryptocurrency product could be legally considered a debenture under Australian law. ASIC argued that the Finder Earn product offered by Finder Wallet was a debenture under the Corporations Act 2001.
The primary judge rejected this view in March 2025, and the appeal sought to overturn that decision.
When ASIC appealed the initial judgment, they argued that Finder’s arrangement was effectively a loan or deposit of money, hence should be seen as a debenture.
They added that the arrangement included an undertaking to repay money as a debt, whether or not it was used for working capital. They also stated that converting AUD to TrueAUD and allocating it to Finder should be seen as a single financial arrangement.
Federal Court’s Ruling
The Federal Court reviewed the case and agreed that TrueAUD is not money, but a type of property. This meant customers did not lend or deposit money, which is required for something to be legally considered a debenture.
The court also noted that customers could use their Finder Wallet for other things such as buying different cryptocurrencies or withdrawing funds, hence putting money into the wallet was not automatically connected to using the Finder Earn product.
The court further explained that customers gave ownership of their TrueAUD to Finder Wallet in exchange for a contractual right to get the same amount and interest later. This arrangement was more akin to lending securities rather than extending a traditional money loan.
As a result, the court rejected the appeal, ruling that Finder Earn is not a debenture under the Corporations Act since it did not involve a money loan or a promise to repay money used for business purposes.
Recently, ASIC took legal action against a former executive of Blockchain Global, accusing him of mishandling ACX Exchange assets and failing to meet his responsibilities as a company director.
These developments come as Australia rolls out a new crypto regulatory framework aimed at asset safeguarding, licensing, and integrating digital assets into the broader economy.
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