Speaking at the same event, AustralianSuper’s Mr Schroder said the fund did not hold cryptocurrencies because the assets did not produce an income, just as the fund does not invest in gold. “For us, we don’t see cryptocurrency as investable for our members. It doesn’t have the income stream,” he said.

Mr Schroder stressed he was not taking a wider view on the merits or otherwise of cryptocurrencies, and said the fund was studying the underlying distributed ledger or “blockchain” technology.

“I’m not saying anything about crypto. Crypto might be great, it might be bad, whatever. But we are very interested in decentralised finance. We’re very interested in what does blockchain mean for the structure of finance in the future,” he said.

Earlier in the day, minister for superannuation, financial services and the digital economy, Jane Hume, pointed to Commonwealth Bank’s foray into cryptocurrencies as one sign the trend was not a “fad”. Senator Hume highlighted the rise of the internet, email and iPhones in recent decades to argue the superannuation sector and the government should “tread cautiously, but not fearfully” when it came to cryptocurrencies.

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“If the last 20 or 30 years have taught us anything, it’s that all innovation begins as disruption and ends as a household name,” Senator Hume said.

“Decentralised finance underpinned by blockchain technology will present incredible opportunities ‑ Australia mustn’t be left behind by fear of the unknown.”

Mr Longo said ASIC would not stop people investing in cryptos, but nor was it his job to act as a “cheerleader” for the industry. “People can invest, but they need to understand that this is a new frontier, and the regulatory settings are not there,” he said.

He also highlighted that in many cases, financial advisers were not allowed to offer advice on crypto assets because they were not considered financial products.

“At present many crypto-assets are probably not ‘financial products’, making it difficult for financial advisers to offer counsel. So, what can they do when clients are banging down the door wanting to divert their savings into Ethereum or Dogecoin, a currency originally conceived as a joke?” he said.

While ASIC had provided guidance on exchange-traded funds linked to crypto assets - he said that for the most part, investors were “on their own”.

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