Regulatory overview · Not legal advice

Publishing Verified Trader Performance — Australia Regulatory Overview

How NakedPnL is positioned in Australia under the Corporations Act 2001, ASIC supervision, the AFSL regime, the Privacy Act 1988, and ATO crypto-asset guidance.

By NakedPnL Research·May 7, 2026·11 min read

TL;DR

NakedPnL does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence (AFSL) under Chapter 7 of the Corporations Act 2001.
The platform does not provide financial product advice within the meaning of section 766B of the Corporations Act — neither personal advice nor general advice in the regulated sense.
The platform is not a financial product, a derivative, a market, or a clearing and settlement facility.
Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the Australian Privacy Principles apply to user data; data-subject requests are honoured.
Australia is not currently in the platform's lib/jurisdictions.ts mapping; users in Australia see the default disclaimer until a country-specific variant is added.

NakedPnL operates a public registry of verified investment performance produced by individual traders who voluntarily connect read-only exchange API keys or sign on-chain wallet attestations. Daily NAV snapshots feed a time-weighted return (TWR) calculation; results are recorded in an append-only, SHA-256 chained ledger and Merkle-anchored to Bitcoin via OpenTimestamps so any third party can independently re-verify them.

This page describes how that activity is positioned under Australian law, with reference to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth), the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth), and Australian Taxation Office (ATO) crypto-asset guidance.

How NakedPnL is classified in Australia

NakedPnL's activity is the production and distribution of factual performance data. The platform does not hold an AFSL under §911A of the Corporations Act, does not appear on the ASIC Professional Registers, and does not provide a financial service within the meaning of §766A of the Corporations Act.

Section 766B: financial product advice

Section 766B(1) of the Corporations Act defines financial product advice as a recommendation, statement of opinion, or report of either of those that is intended to influence a person in making a decision in relation to a particular financial product, or class of financial products, or that could reasonably be regarded as being intended to have such an influence. Section 766B(3) splits financial product advice into personal advice (where suitability or objectives are taken into account) and general advice (everything else).

ASIC Regulatory Guide 36 (Licensing: Financial product advice and dealing) elaborates the test. Factual reporting that does not include any recommendation, opinion, or implied opinion typically falls outside §766B altogether — it is information rather than advice. NakedPnL publishes historical TWR series of consenting traders without recommending any product, expressing any opinion on a product, or implying that any product is suitable for any reader. The platform's analysis is that the published content is information rather than financial product advice.

Other Chapter 7 perimeters

Section 766C defines dealing in a financial product to include applying for, acquiring, varying, or disposing of a financial product on behalf of another person. NakedPnL does not deal — read-only API keys cannot place trades and wallet attestations are signature-based proofs.

Section 766D defines providing a custodial or depository service. NakedPnL does not custody assets of any kind. Section 791A and the Australian market licence regime do not apply because the platform does not operate a financial market in the sense of bringing buyers and sellers together. The clearing-and-settlement-facility regime under §820A is similarly inapplicable.

Crypto-asset framing

ASIC's Information Sheet 225 (Crypto-assets) and 269 (Discussing crypto-assets in advertising) describe how crypto-assets may be treated as financial products under the Corporations Act on a case-by-case basis depending on rights conferred. The Australian Treasury's 2023–2024 Token Mapping consultation and subsequent regulatory work continue to develop the framework. The platform monitors but does not anticipate these developments.

Where individual traders trade crypto-assets that are characterised as financial products on third-party Australian venues, those venues — not NakedPnL — are responsible for any AFSL requirements applicable to their own activity. NakedPnL does not deal, hold, or advise.

What NakedPnL does not do

No copy trading. The platform cannot replicate one trader's positions into another user's account.
No personal advice or general advice in the regulated sense. The platform produces information, not advice.
No broker-affiliate links to AFSL holders or unlicensed firms in exchange for fees.
No investor-trader matching. The platform does not arrange transactions between investors and traders.
No custody. Read-only API keys cannot move funds; wallet attestations do not grant transfer authority.
No execution. The platform never sends orders to any venue.

These design choices are encoded as feature flags in the codebase and protected by a continuous-integration test that fails the build if any flag is changed.

What Australian users should know

Australian users should treat the registry as factual performance data and nothing more. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future performance — a phrase ASIC requires AFSL holders to display alongside past-performance statements. NakedPnL applies an equivalent statement on every trader profile.

If a third party offers to manage your money based on a NakedPnL track record, check ASIC Connect and the Professional Registers to see whether the third party holds the appropriate AFSL. Trade only with licensed entities for activities within the AFSL perimeter. NakedPnL does not vouch for any third-party manager.

Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles

The Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and the thirteen Australian Privacy Principles (APPs) in Schedule 1 govern the handling of personal information by APP entities, including overseas entities that have an Australian link. The platform's processing of Australian users' data is conducted in line with the APPs, with particular attention to APP 1 (open and transparent management), APP 6 (use or disclosure), and APP 12 (access).

Lawful bases used by the platform include performance of a contract for users with an account, legitimate-interests-equivalent reasoning under APP 6.2, and consent for the public listing of a trader's handle and TWR series. Data-subject access and correction requests under APP 12 and APP 13 are processed through the privacy contact. Withdrawing public-listing consent removes the registry entry from public endpoints. Complaints may be raised with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Tax considerations

ATO guidance on crypto-assets — particularly Taxation Determination TD 2014/26 and the Crypto-asset investments page on the ATO website — sets out that gains and losses on crypto-assets generally fall under the capital gains tax (CGT) regime in Part 3-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, with revenue treatment for traders and businesses. Forex gains may be addressed under Division 775 of the same Act. NakedPnL does not produce ATO-facing statements; users are responsible for their own returns. A Tax Practitioners Board–registered tax adviser is the right resource for specific questions.

Australia disclaimer variant

Australia is not currently mapped to a country-specific disclaimer variant in lib/jurisdictions.ts. Users in Australia therefore see the default publisher disclaimer, which states that NakedPnL is a publisher of verified data and not an investment adviser, broker, asset manager, or copy-trading platform. A jurisdiction-specific variant may be added in a future release; this page will be updated accordingly.

Frequently asked questions

Frequently asked questions

Is NakedPnL an AFSL holder?

No. NakedPnL does not hold an Australian Financial Services Licence under §911A of the Corporations Act 2001 and does not appear on the ASIC Professional Registers. The platform's posture is that its activity falls outside the financial-services perimeter and therefore does not require an AFSL.

Does the platform provide financial product advice under §766B?

No. The platform publishes historical TWR series of consenting traders without recommending any product, stating an opinion on any product, or implying that any product is suitable for any reader. ASIC RG 36 elaborates the line; the platform's analysis is that the published content is information rather than financial product advice.

Does the platform deal in financial products under §766C?

No. The platform does not apply for, acquire, vary, or dispose of any financial product on behalf of another person. Read-only API keys grant no transactional authority and wallet attestations are signature-based proofs.

How do I exercise my rights under the Privacy Act 1988 and the APPs?

Traders can withdraw their public-listing consent from account settings, which removes the registry entry from public endpoints. For broader access and correction rights under APP 12 and APP 13, contact the privacy team via the channel listed in the privacy notice. Complaints can be raised with the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC).

Are gains from trading captured in the registry taxed in Australia?

Generally yes. Crypto-asset and other investment gains fall under the CGT regime in Part 3-1 of the Income Tax Assessment Act 1997, with revenue treatment available for traders and businesses. The platform does not produce ATO-facing statements; users are responsible for their own returns. The ATO Crypto-asset investments page is the starting point.

Why isn't Australia in the lib/jurisdictions.ts disclaimer mapping?

The current jurisdictions.ts mapping covers US, UK, EU/EEA, India, and the UAE. Users in other jurisdictions, including Australia, see the default publisher disclaimer. A country-specific variant may be added in a future release if regulatory developments warrant it.

References