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ASEAN Plus Group has released a comprehensive guide to Asia-Pacific payment services regulations. For each country, it gives an overview of the current state of the domestic payment industry, the regulators in charge of overseeing the sector, the different types of licenses available, the licensing requirements, the state of cryptoassets regulations, intellectual property laws in place, as well as anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), tech risk, and data privacy requirements, among other key topics.

"Canadian regulators continue to take a collaborative and cautious approach to regulating the cryptocurrency industry. Due to the ever-evolving landscape of the industry, regulators have taken it upon themselves to clarify the regulatory framework, to better support businesses seeking to offer innovative products, services and applications, and to protect Canadian investors. This may be a welcome approach insofar as it fosters increased stability and predictability, which will serve the industry well in the long run."

The World Bank has assembled a Global Database of Fintech Regulations that constitutes a curated library of enabling laws, regulations, and guidelines from nearly 200 countries in a searchable and easy-to-use format. The data show that while some countries have strong enabling regulations for fintech and digital financial services, others simply lack the necessary regulatory infrastructure. Also, foundational legislation exists in most countries, but there are important gaps, for example in the implementation of basic data-protection regulations.

Indonesia's Financial Services Authority has prohibited financial firms from using, marketing, and/or facilitating crypto-asset trading. In addition, the financial regulator reminded the public to always beware of fraudulent Ponzi schemes under the guise of crypto. The OJK does not supervise or regulate crypto-assets. The regulation and supervision of crypto assets in Indonesia are carried out by the Commodity Futures Trading Authority and the Ministry of Trade.

Dubai's Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) and Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) published updates to their crypto regulations. VARA updated its virtual asset rulebook and added new fiat-referenced virtual asset (FRVA) (or fiat-referenced stablecoin) regulations. VARAs exclude stablecoins pegged to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) dirham, which will remain under Central bank of the UAE regulation, and crypto-assets that reference central bank equity claims, central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), or tokenized bank deposits for interbank settlement purposes. [Read more at VARA] DIFC proposed a new securities digital asset law in a new consultation paper.

It's clear regulators prefer interacting with banks because banks are centralized and easy to control. Reading between the lines, the real risk stablecoins pose is creating a system less amenable to government efforts of control. But technological progress is not going to stop. Economic activity is simply going to move elsewhere in the world if we continue down this path. United States regulators believe they face a choice between allowing or banning stablecoins, but in reality they face a choice between allowing stablecoins onshore or having them be primarily offshore. Already, the biggest winner of the current U.S. attack on crypto is likely Tether, the largest stablecoin issuer with a less-than-reputable past. Stablecoin tether (USDT) is growing again while Circle's USDC and the Paxos-issued BUSD, both of which are more transparent, more regulated and safer for consumers, are shrinking.

Elliptic published the 2024 edition of its global crypto regulation landscape review, highlighting key trends and regional developments that are shaping the future of regulatory compliance. Significant developments have emerged across three key areas: the EU's Markets in Crypto-assets (MiCA) regulation, the expansion of the "travel rule" to crypto transactions, and stablecoin regulation. Authorities are now emphasizing consumer protection, financial stability, and preventing illicit activities, aided by the entry of mature institutional players, contributing to a structured and transparent market.

U.S. Senator Hagerty introduced the Bill for the U.S. Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act, in collaboration with co-sponsor Senators Tim Scott, Kirsten Gillibrand (Democrat) and Cynthia Lummis, aimed at regulating stablecoins by establishing clear issuance procedures and designating federal and state regulators based on the issuer's size. For example, the Bill allows state regulators to supervise payment stablecoins of under $10 billion. Reserve requirements would limit the type of backing collateral to commercial bank deposits, short-term Treasuries, repo and reverse repo involving short-term Treasuries, similar money market funds and central bank reserve deposits. https://www.hagerty.senate.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/GENIUS-Act.pdf

The Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) of the European Parliament has published a draft report on on the proposal for a regulation on a pilot regime for market infrastructures based on distributed ledger technology (DLT). The proposed regulation is intended to provide a mechanism for allowing market infrastructures to experiment with certain restricted uses of DLT. The report indicates overall support for the proposed regulation, but presents a number of amendments aimed at ensuring the final proposal delivers the stated objectives of the pilot programme.

This BIS working paper advocates regulating bigtechs using an entity-based rather than a "same activity, same regulation" activity-based regulatory approach. It argues that there is only limited scope for harmonizing the requirements for different players in specific market segments without jeopardising higher-priority policy goals. The regulatory framework should incorporate entity-based requirements for big techs in areas such as competition and operational resilience that would address the risks stemming from the different activities they perform. This strategy would not only help regulation to achieve its primary objectives, but would also serve to mitigate competitive distortions. However, in some policy domains, such as consumer protection or AML/CFT, an activity-based approach may well be adequate enough to achieve primary objectives.

The Central Bank of The Bahamas (CBOB) has released a consultation paper setting out its proposals for legislation to regulate the provision and use of central bank digital currency (CBDC). It summarizes the key provisions of the draft Central Bank (Electronic Bahamian Dollars) Regulations 2021. These include qualification of wallet providers, interoperability, consumer protection, financial stability and financial inclusion. The CBOB is also proposing other consequential amendments to the Payment Systems Act (No. 7 of 2012) & the Computer Misuse Act (Ch. 107A). These legislative amendments are set out in the draft Payment Systems (Amendment) Bill 2021 and the draft Computer Misuse (Amendment) Bill 2021. The consultation period will end on 31st March, 2021. https://www.centralbankbahamas.com/viewPDF/documents/2021-02-15-11-24-12-Central-Bank-Electronic-Bahamian-Dollars-Regulations-2021.pdf

This BIS paper explores how fintech financing is regulated based on an extensive desktop review of regulations and related documents, and an early-2019 Financial Stability Institute survey. It found that for digital banking, most jurisdictions apply existing banking laws and regulations to banks within their remit. In the few jurisdictions that had set specific digital bank regulatory frameworks, the main licencing and ongoing requirements were similar to those for traditional banks. However, digital banks typically faced restrictions on their physical presence and, in some cases, the market segments they were allowed to serve, and their fit and proper requirements tended to be more prescriptive.

The National Bank of Georgia has approved the Regulation on Inclusion in Open Banking. The regulation describes the enrollment procedure and ensures the correctness, reliability and security of the services of the entities enrolled. Non-bank institutions, provided that they meet the requirements stipulated by the regulation, are given the opportunity to engage in open banking as providers of both access to account information and payment initiation services. Any entity regulated by the National Bank of Georgia may be included in open banking.

The New York Fed's Innovation Center (NYIC) is participating in a proof-of-concept project along with members of the private sector to explore the feasibility of an interoperable network of digital central bank liabilities and commercial bank digital money using distributed ledger technology. In a 12-week proof-of-concept project-the Regulated Liability Network U.S. Pilot-the NYIC will experiment with the concept of a regulated liability network (RLN). RLN is a concept for a financial market infrastructure (FMI) facilitating digital asset transactions that connect deposits held at regulated financial institutions using distributed ledger technology. The proof-of-concept will build a prototype for a distributed ledger-based network and test the feasibility of payments between financial institutions using tokenized regulated liabilities on the RLN. The project will be conducted in a test environment and only use simulated data. Participants include BNY Mellon, Citi, HSBC, Mastercard, PNC Bank, TD Bank, Truist, U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo. Swift, the global financial messaging service provider, is supporting interoperability across the international financial ecosystem.

"To sum up, the idea of applying crypto regulation to crypto needs to be fleshed out. There are many blockchain-based activities that are not gambling, and shouldn't be regulated as such. But a big chunk of what occurs on blockchains is gambling, and it's about time we recognized it as such - and regulated it accordingly "

The Financial Stability Oversight Council (FSOC) released its report on the financial stability risks and regulatory gaps posed by various types of digital assets and provides recommendations to address such risks. To address regulatory gaps, the FSOC recommends the passage of legislation providing for rulemaking authority for federal financial regulators over the spot market for crypto-assets that are not securities; steps to address regulatory arbitrage including coordination, legislation regarding risks posed by stablecoins, legislation relating to regulators' authorities to have visibility into, and otherwise supervise, the activities of all of the affiliates and subsidiaries of crypto-asset entities, and appropriate service provider regulation; and study of potential vertical integration by crypto-asset firms.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) told an appeals court that crypto exchange Coinbase hadn't proven the regulator needs to create a new regulatory framework for the digital asset industry. The federal regulator asked the court to reject a Coinbase petition asking for additional regulatory guidance specifically tailored to the digital asset industry. SEC Chair Gary Gensler has argued that most crypto-assets, apart from Bitcoin, fall under the SEC's definition of "securities" and the SEC has well established rules and regulations for securities firms. https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca3.119939/gov.uscourts.ca3.119939.26.0_1.pdf

This BIS paper proposes a framework for classifying regulatory measures with a financial stability objective as activity-based (AB) or entity-based (EB). AB measures constrain an activity on a standalone basis, whereas EB measures constrain a combination of activities at the level of entities. Since such combinations underpin much of financial intermediation, financial stability regulation features EB measures at its core, even though its ultimate objective is to make financial activities more resilient. In discussing the relative merits of AB and EB measures, we apply our framework to the regulation of banks, collective investment vehicles and big techs. When addressing systemic risk, neither AB nor EB regulation need be consistent with a level playing field, contrary to a widely held view.

The Bank of Ghana (BOG) published draft guidelines on digital asset regulation for feedback from the public and industry stakeholders. The central bank proposes an eight-pillar crypto regulation framework, mainly intensifying the registration and reporting requirements of crypto exchanges or virtual asset service providers (VASPs). The proposed regulations will require crypto exchanges to monitor and report suspicious transactions and comply with the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF's) Travel Rule. https://www.bog.gov.gh/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/Draft-Guidelines-on-Digital-Assets.pdf

"The Financial Stability Board (FSB) published today a Crypto-assets regulators directory. The purpose of the directory is to provide information on the relevant regulators and other authorities in FSB jurisdictions and international bodies who are dealing with crypto-asset issues, and the aspects covered by them."