Stablecoins
The most-regulated corner of crypto. Dedicated issuer regimes are now law in the United States (GENIUS Act), the EU (MiCA Titles III–IV), Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and the UAE, with the UK's arriving October 2027 and Korea's stalled in the National Assembly.
- United States · GENIUS Act and US implementation
- European Union · MiCA's ART and EMT titles
- Hong Kong · Stablecoins Ordinance (Cap. 656)
- United Kingdom · FCA PS26/10 and Bank of England systemic regime
- Singapore · MAS stablecoin framework
- Japan · Trust-based stablecoins under the PSA
- South Korea · The stalled won-stablecoin bill
Market structure & exchanges
Who licenses the venue, and which assets are securities. The EU answered with MiCA's CASP regime; the US answer rests on the CLARITY Act, now one floor vote from reshaping SEC and CFTC jurisdiction; Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, and Turkey run mature licensing regimes.
- United States · CLARITY Act status and SEC-CFTC taxonomy
- European Union · CASP authorization
- Hong Kong · VATP licensing
- Japan · Exchange registration and the FIEA shift
- Türkiye · CMB licensing under Law 7518
- New York · BitLicense
- California · DFAL
AML & the travel rule
The oldest and most universal layer. FATF's Recommendation 15 and travel rule set the baseline nearly everywhere; the EU enforces from the first euro, and mutual evaluations now grade countries on crypto supervision effectiveness.
- European Union · Transfer of Funds Regulation
- United States · BSA coverage and CLARITY's illicit-finance title
- India · PMLA registration
- Singapore · FSM Act and the DTSP crackdown
- South Africa · FIC Act coverage
Taxation & reporting
Reporting is going global. The OECD's CARF standard reaches first exchanges in 2027; the EU's DAC8 is live as of January 2026; US brokers began 1099-DA reporting for 2025; India's 30% flat tax remains the world's harshest major-market treatment.
- European Union · DAC8
- United States · Form 1099-DA and IRS rules
- India · § 115BBH and 1% TDS
- Brazil · Capital gains and the 2025 flat-rate reform
Custody & consumer protection
The post-FTX agenda: segregation of client assets, bankruptcy priority, reserve attestations, and cold-storage minimums, written into VAUPA, MiCA, the DFAL, and the CLARITY Act's customer-protection title.
- South Korea · VAUPA custody and insurance rules
- California · DFAL customer protections
- European Union · MiCA safeguarding duties
- United States · CLARITY's segregation and bankruptcy provisions
- Hong Kong · SFC custody proposals
DeFi & DAOs
The unsolved perimeter. The Senate's 2026 CLARITY text carries the first US statutory DeFi framework; the EU deferred DeFi to MiCA's review; Wyoming remains the only jurisdiction with purpose-built DAO entity law.
- United States · The Senate DeFi framework
- European Union · MiCA's DeFi review clause
- Wyoming · DAO LLCs and the DUNA
CBDCs & public crypto holdings
Two opposite state postures: banning a retail CBDC (US House, July 2025) while stockpiling bitcoin (the March 2025 Strategic Bitcoin Reserve order, plus Texas, New Hampshire, and Arizona state laws). China runs the world's largest CBDC pilot while banning private crypto.
- United States · Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and the Anti-CBDC Act
- Texas · The Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve
- New Hampshire · HB 302
- Arizona · Reserve fund laws
- China · e-CNY and the private ban
Mining & energy
Mining migrated to law-friendly grids after China's 2021 ban: US states passed right-to-mine statutes, Russia legalized and licensed industrial mining in 2024, and energy regulators now treat load growth from data centers and mining as one question.
- United States · Federal posture and state right-to-mine laws
- Russia · The 2024 mining law
- China · The mining ban
- Texas · ERCOT and the mining boom