Can You Pay a Property Deposit in Crypto in Queensland?

A buyer approaches you after inspections. They want to proceed. They have the funds — held in Bitcoin. They want to know whether they can use it to pay the deposit. It’s a question agents are fielding more frequently, particularly from internationally mobile buyers, younger investors, and tech-sector professionals who hold meaningful crypto portfolios alongside traditional assets.

The answer is not a flat yes or no. It depends on how the deposit mechanism is structured, what the contract says, and whether the parties — including the deposit holder — can actually facilitate it. Understanding where crypto sits in Queensland’s property framework is now a practical skill for any agent working at the premium or investor end of the market.

What the REIQ Contract Actually Requires

In Queensland, a buyer entering a standard contract of sale for the purchase of a house and land will generally be required to pay a deposit under the REIQ Contract for Houses and Residential Land or, for apartments and townhouses, the REIQ Contract for Residential Lots in a Community Titles Scheme.

The deposit generally cannot exceed 10% of the purchase price and is payable in two parts — an initial deposit and a balance deposit — with both amounts recorded in the Reference Schedule of the contract.

The buyer must pay the deposit to the deposit holder specified in the Reference Schedule, which is usually the trust account of the seller’s real estate agency. The deposit holder holds the deposit until a party becomes entitled to it.

The critical point for crypto: nowhere in the standard REIQ contract does it specify that a deposit must be paid in Australian dollars. The contract records a dollar-denominated amount and provides trust account banking details. What it does not do is address cryptocurrency as a payment medium in any way. That silence creates both the opportunity and the complication.

It is worth noting that from 1 August 2025, the two new REIQ contracts replaced the previous suite of four contracts. The new Contract for the Sale and Purchase of Residential Real Estate (1st edition) consolidated the previous Contract for Houses and Residential Land (19th edition) and Contract for Residential Lots in a Community Titles Scheme (15th edition). Neither the prior nor the current contract editions contemplate crypto payment.

How Crypto Sits Under Australian Law — and Why It Matters Here

Before assessing how to pay a property deposit in crypto in Queensland, agents need to understand the legal character of cryptocurrency in Australia.

Cryptocurrency is not recognised as legal tender in Australia and is not treated as “money” under Australian law. It is typically classified as property for legal and tax purposes, rather than as currency equivalent to Australian dollars or foreign fiat.

In the recent case of Re Blockchain Tech Pty Ltd [2024] VSC 690, the Supreme Court of Victoria held that cryptocurrency is property — specifically a chose in action, meaning intangible rights enforceable by legal action, such as debts, shares, or intellectual property rights. This is the most authoritative Australian judicial statement on point to date, and while it is a Victorian decision, it carries significant weight in Queensland courts.

Despite its name, cryptocurrency is not considered to be money or foreign currency in Australia under ATO Taxation Determination TD 2014/25 — it is considered property, legally a chose in action.

This classification has a direct consequence for deposit transactions. If crypto is property and not money, a buyer handing over Bitcoin is not paying in the same sense as a buyer doing an EFT. They are disposing of an asset with a dollar value equivalent — a fundamentally different transaction in both legal and tax terms.

The Trust Account Problem — and Why It Is the Central Issue

The biggest structural obstacle to paying a property deposit in crypto in Queensland is not the contract itself. It is the trust account.

In Queensland, if an agent carries a real estate licence and intends to collect amounts of money on behalf of others, they must have a trust account. They must be the principal licensee of their business to operate a trust account.

One of the key functions of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld) (AFA Act) is to establish a Claim Fund against which a person may make a claim for compensation if they have suffered financial loss because of an agent’s contravention of the AFA Act or other relevant legislation.

Pursuant to section 16 of the AFA Act, an agent must, before the end of the first business day after receiving an amount, pay it into the agent’s general trust account.

Here is where the problem crystallises. An agent’s trust account is a regulated bank account held with an authorised deposit-taking institution. Cryptocurrency cannot be deposited into an Australian real estate trust account. There is no mechanism under the AFA Act or the Agents Financial Administration Regulation 2014 (Qld) for an agent to hold crypto as trust money. The AFA Act framework contemplates trust money received as cash, cheque, direct deposit, or electronic funds transfer — categories that do not include on-chain crypto transfers to a wallet address.

An agent who received a crypto transfer and attempted to classify it as a deposit in trust — or worse, held it in a personal or business wallet rather than a bank trust account — would be in significant breach. Under Queensland’s Agents Financial Administration Act, fines apply and criminal prosecution is possible for serious trust money misuse.

This does not mean crypto is useless to the transaction. It means that, in the standard Queensland residential transaction, crypto cannot function as the direct vehicle for deposit payment into the agent’s trust account.

How a Crypto Deposit Can Be Structured — Practically

The above constraint does not preclude a buyer from using crypto funds as the economic source of a deposit. It simply means the crypto must be converted to Australian dollars before it enters the deposit payment mechanism. This is how most transactions involving crypto-wealthy buyers are handled in practice.

The buyer liquidates their cryptocurrency holding — either directly on an exchange or through a broker — and the resulting AUD proceeds are transferred to the deposit holder’s trust account in the usual way. From the agent’s perspective, this is a conventional EFT deposit. The buyer’s path to funding it is their own concern.

Where agents sometimes encounter confusion is when a buyer asks whether the contract can simply nominate a crypto amount as the deposit — for example, a fixed number of Bitcoin in lieu of a dollar figure. This is theoretically possible as a contractual matter if both parties agree and the contract is appropriately drafted. Parties to a contract can agree to almost any form of consideration. However, it creates a cascade of complications:

The deposit holder would need to be a party that can legitimately hold crypto assets — not a real estate agency with a statutory trust account. This might mean the parties direct the deposit to a law firm that has assessed whether it can hold crypto, or agrees that no deposit is held pending settlement. It requires extensive special condition drafting by solicitors, not a tick-box on a standard REIQ form.

Valuation volatility presents another layer of difficulty. If Bitcoin is nominated as the deposit amount and its AUD value drops between contract execution and settlement, the party entitled to the deposit — whether the seller on default or the buyer on termination — faces an uncertain and potentially disputed recovery amount. The value of cryptocurrency is driven entirely by supply and demand, making its market value very volatile. That volatility is incompatible with the purpose of a deposit, which exists precisely to provide the seller with a readily quantifiable and accessible security.

The buyer will be in default if they do not pay the deposit as required. If the contract settles, the seller is entitled to the deposit plus any interest if it was invested in an interest-bearing account by the deposit holder. A crypto-denominated deposit would complicate every one of those scenarios.

For the rare all-cash, unconditional transaction where the buyer is sufficiently sophisticated and both parties are legally advised, a fully bespoke structure with the deposit held directly by legal practitioners may be achievable. This remains an exception, not a standard pathway.

The Tax Dimension Buyers Must Understand

An agent who helps facilitate a transaction involving a buyer’s crypto is not a tax adviser. But agents who work with crypto-asset buyers need to be aware of the tax position well enough to prompt their clients to seek proper advice before contract execution — not after.

Despite its name, cryptocurrency is treated as an asset (or property) by the Australian Taxation Office, rather than a type of currency. This means it is typically taxed in the same way as shares or real estate.

The most common use of crypto is as an investment, in which case the crypto asset is a capital gains tax (CGT) asset. If a buyer acquired their crypto as an investment, transactions such as disposal or exchange or swap are a CGT event and they may make a capital gain or loss.

This means that the moment a buyer sells or exchanges their Bitcoin to fund a property deposit, a CGT event is triggered. They must calculate the capital gain or loss on that disposal based on the difference between their acquisition cost and the disposal proceeds. They may be able to reduce capital gains using the CGT discount if they held the crypto asset for at least 12 months.

In May 2024, the ATO announced it was requesting personal and transaction details for 1.2 million Australian crypto investors from crypto exchanges to ensure tax compliance. This is not a theoretical compliance risk. The ATO is actively matching data. Buyers who convert large crypto holdings to fund a property purchase will be visible to the ATO, and they need to ensure that disposal is correctly accounted for in their return.

For international buyers using crypto, the tax position can be more complex. If a buyer is an Australian resident for tax purposes, they must pay tax in Australia on all of their income and capital gains from crypto assets, regardless of where those assets are sourced. Foreign residents have different obligations, and the application of any relevant tax treaty will need to be considered.

None of this is the agent’s job to navigate. But alerting buyers early — before contract — that a crypto liquidation event carries tax consequences is part of competent service. A buyer who discovers a large CGT bill after signing a contract they funded by selling crypto may become an unhappy buyer.

AML/CTF — A Rapidly Changing Compliance Landscape

Queensland agents also need to be aware that the anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF) environment is undergoing significant change that will directly affect how they handle transactions involving unusual payment sources, including cryptocurrency.

The federal AML/CTF regime under AUSTRAC, which applies to real estate professionals from 1 July 2026, adds customer due diligence and suspicious matter reporting to existing trust obligations. Both the state-based trust legislation layer and the federal AML/CTF layer apply simultaneously, and compliance with one does not substitute for the other.

Real estate agents must enrol with AUSTRAC by 29 July 2026, and must develop an AML/CTF program including a money laundering and terrorism financing risk assessment, AML/CTF policies, and customer due diligence obligations.

Crypto funds entering a property transaction — even after conversion to AUD — may attract heightened scrutiny under those customer due diligence obligations. A buyer presenting funds sourced from cryptocurrency is not automatically suspicious; millions of Australians legally hold digital assets. But agents will need to be in a position to apply appropriate CDD processes and document the source of funds. Treating a crypto-sourced deposit as standard without any additional enquiry will not meet the intent of the incoming framework.

Agents who work in premium or internationally-focused markets should begin familiarising themselves with these obligations now rather than scrambling in the second half of 2026.

What About Stablecoins?

Stablecoins — digital assets pegged to a fiat currency such as the Australian dollar or the US dollar — are sometimes suggested as a cleaner solution, given their price stability. In theory, a AUSD-pegged stablecoin transfer could represent a precise dollar amount without the volatility risk of Bitcoin or Ether.

In practice, the trust account problem is unchanged. A stablecoin is still a crypto asset, not a bank transfer. It cannot be deposited into a regulated trust account at an authorised deposit-taking institution. Cryptocurrency — including stablecoins — is not recognised as legal tender in Australia.

Regulatory treatment is also evolving. Proposed amendments under the Payments Strategic Plan include requirements for major stablecoin issuers holding in excess of A$100 million to be authorised by APRA, and all non-bank issued stablecoins to be collateralised 1:1 with appropriate reserves. The regulatory framework for stablecoins in Australia is not yet settled, and agents should not treat stablecoin transfers as equivalent to fiat payment for the purpose of deposit obligations.

Seller Considerations

Agents representing sellers need to address the crypto deposit question from the other direction. If a buyer proposes a crypto-based arrangement, the seller needs to understand what they are agreeing to and the risks involved.

A seller’s primary interest in the deposit is that it functions as genuine security — a liquid, accessible amount they can recover in the event of buyer default. If the contract of sale is terminated due to the buyer’s default, the seller is entitled to the deposit, and to the extent that the buyer has not paid any part of the deposit as required, the seller may recover that part as a liquidated debt. That recovery is straightforward when the deposit sits in a regulated trust account in Australian dollars. It becomes considerably more complex if the deposit is denominated in or held as cryptocurrency.

Sellers asked to accept any arrangement that departs from a conventional AUD trust account deposit should be strongly encouraged to seek independent legal advice before agreeing. As an agent, framing this accurately — not alarmingly — is part of your duty to both parties.

What This Means for Queensland Agents

The short answer for day-to-day practice: a buyer cannot pay a property deposit directly in crypto into a Queensland real estate trust account, and any arrangement that attempts to do so would place the agent in breach of the Agents Financial Administration Act 2014 (Qld). This is not a technicality. It is a hard boundary enforced by statute.

The workable path for buyers with crypto wealth is liquidation into AUD prior to deposit payment. Agents should communicate this clearly, early, and without embarrassment. There is nothing complicated about it once everyone understands the constraint.

For buyers who ask about more bespoke arrangements — such as a crypto-denominated deposit held outside the standard trust account framework — the honest answer is that this requires solicitor-drafted special conditions, legal practitioners willing and able to hold the relevant assets, seller consent, and careful consideration of what happens to the deposit’s value and recoverability if the contract does not settle. This is a specialist legal exercise, not a real estate agency function.

From a practical standpoint, agents should also be prepared for three things that are becoming more common:

• Buyers who need more time before contract because they need to liquidate crypto and manage the CGT consequences before funding the deposit
• Requests from international buyers accustomed to markets where crypto property transactions are more developed, who may need a clear explanation of how the Queensland framework differs
• Increasing compliance obligations from 2026 onwards requiring agents to document and assess the source of funds in transactions involving converted crypto assets

Australian real estate trust account regulations now operate on two layers — state trust law and federal AML/CTF — and understanding both will be a baseline expectation for licensed Queensland agents within the next financial year. Agents who get ahead of this now are better placed to serve sophisticated clients and avoid being caught off-guard by what will quickly become a standard compliance question.

The buyers with crypto wealth are not going away. The framework for handling them cleanly, legally, and professionally is what every Queensland agent now needs to understand.