Trade S&P 500 in Australia

This page answers one question for Australia: how a resident actually gets SP500 exposure, and what the rules say.

Is S&P 500 trading legal in Australia?

Australia treats spot crypto and crypto derivatives as different regulatory objects and gives them different answers, but neither is banned. Holding and trading crypto is lawful — ASIC's consumer site describes buying and selling crypto on a trading platform as an ordinary thing to do while warning it is highly speculative — though it is careful to say that crypto-assets, even Australian dollar stablecoins, are not legal tender in Australia and are not widely accepted as payment. The government was consulting on exposure-draft legislation to bring digital asset platforms and tokenised custody platforms in as new financial products when INFO 225 was last updated, so this perimeter is expected to move.

What the contract is

A perpetual on SP500 tracks price and does not confer ownership of the underlying — the same contract mechanics apply in every jurisdiction; what differs by country is legal status and funding rails.

Sign up on Canborsa with email, X or a wallet

No document upload to open the account. Canborsa is non-custodial: your collateral stays under your own keys until a position opens.

Email X Wallet

Fund the account with USDC

Deposit USDC over Canton, Robinhood Chain, Ethereum, Base, BNB Chain or Arbitrum. Canborsa takes no fiat, so buying the USDC happens wherever you normally buy stablecoins.

→Robinhood Chain

Open SP500-PERP

Pick SP500 in the markets list. The ticket shows the live price, the current funding rate and max leverage 30x .

SP500-PERPPerpetual · USDC marginLONG

Choose Buy / Long, then set size and leverage

Buying $1,000 of SP500 at 5x uses $200 of collateral. Higher leverage moves the liquidation price closer to your entry: your exposure is the position size, whatever margin you posted. Set a stop-loss below your entry before you walk away.

Cryptocurrency in Australia is taxed at rates between 0% and 45%, with a 50% capital gains discount for crypto held longer than a year before disposal.

Trading S&P 500 from Australia: legal.

From Australia, you can fund an S&P 500 position using PayID, Bank transfer / Osko and RTGS (real time gross settlement).

19 platforms serve Australia for S&P 500 trading, among them Aevo, ApeX and Avantis.

Canborsa offers up to 30x leverage on S&P 500 for traders based in Australia.

On Canborsa, S&P 500 trading from Australia costs 0.07% per side.