After 2025, how the crypto compliance revolution will drive the market towards $10 trillion

Standing at the new starting point of 2026, reflecting on the concluded 2025, the cryptocurrency industry has experienced a qualitative leap. If we were to summarize last year’s development in one word, it would be “compliance.” What opportunities and challenges will the market face after the new year? How can this once wild growth sector truly integrate into the global financial system? The answer lies in the intensive global compliance policies introduced in 2025.

2025 was a pivotal year for the crypto industry. From the Trump administration’s removal of restrictive regulations at the beginning of the year, to the formal enactment of the GENIUS Act in mid-year, and the implementation of Hong Kong’s “Stablecoin Regulations” at year’s end, these seemingly isolated policies actually form a clear logical chain — the US reconstructed the core framework for institutional entry through federal legislation, the EU established the strictest global regulatory standards via MiCA, and Asia opened a compliant channel through Hong Kong regulations.

A Decade of Regulatory Evolution: From Prohibition to Regulation

Looking back at the development of cryptocurrencies, their relationship with regulation has always been an evolving game of chess. Over the past decade, global crypto regulation has roughly undergone three profound stages of transformation.

Stage One (2009-2015): Regulatory Vacuum. When Bitcoin was born, the world remained silent on this decentralized phenomenon. In 2013, China’s central bank issued a notice on preventing Bitcoin risks; Russia classified it as illegal; the US SEC viewed it as a “potentially risky investment tool.” At this time, the market size was less than $10 billion, entirely in a regulatory vacuum.

Stage Two (2017-2022): Cautious Exploration. With the rise of the Ethereum ecosystem and the DeFi wave, crypto market capitalization surpassed $2 trillion. Japan led the revision of the “Fund Settlement Law” to license exchanges, Switzerland built an inclusive framework through its “Crypto Valley” strategy. The US SEC began classifying some tokens as securities and cracking down on ICO chaos, but conflicts persisted between federal and state levels. A global regulatory consensus gradually formed: outright bans cannot curb innovation; a suitable regulatory system is the key.

Stage Three (2023-present): Deepening Regulation. After the FTX collapse, the industry’s demand for compliance surged. The EU implemented the MiCA regulation at the end of 2024, becoming the world’s first unified crypto regulatory framework. The US SEC adjusted its strategy from “general securities” to classification-based regulation. Countries like Singapore and the UAE established dedicated regulatory agencies and built compliance sandboxes. This systemic regulation laid the foundation for the explosive compliance growth in 2025.

Three Major Compliance Breakthroughs in 2025

In 2025, global crypto compliance achieved a qualitative leap, reflected in three synchronized breakthroughs.

USA: From Policy Innovation to Strategic Deployment. On January 23, Trump signed the “Executive Order on Strengthening America’s Leadership in Digital Financial Technologies,” establishing a regulatory tone of “promoting innovation.” On July 18, the GENIUS Act was signed into law, creating a stablecoin regulatory framework — federal management of systemically important stablecoin issuers with a market cap over $10 billion, requiring 100% reserve backing in USD.

Simultaneously, the House passed the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act,” explicitly excluding Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other decentralized tokens from securities classification, while implementing differentiated regulation for centralized stablecoins and security tokens. More strategically, in March, Trump signed an executive order to establish a “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve,” incorporating 200,000 seized Bitcoins into national reserves and permanently prohibiting their sale, pioneering sovereign nation-state crypto asset holdings.

Regulatory enforcement also adjusted accordingly: in April, the Department of Justice disbanded the National Cryptocurrency Enforcement Team, clarifying that it would only target serious illegal activities, not pursue criminal charges against compliant trading platforms, creating a more relaxed environment for industry development.

Europe: Establishing the Strictest Unified Framework. By November 2025, 57 institutions had obtained MiCA licenses, achieving full-chain regulation from issuance to custody. The core advantage of MiCA is “one license across Europe” — obtaining a crypto asset service provider license in any EU member state allows compliant operation across all 27 countries.

This classification regulation has shown effects: Tether (USDT) was delisted from European exchanges for not meeting audit standards, while Circle’s compliant stablecoin, with transparent reserves, captured a larger market share in Europe. More groundbreaking, in November, the decentralized lending protocol Aave passed the Irish Central Bank review, becoming the first DeFi project licensed under MiCA, marking the beginning of regulatory coverage over decentralized ecosystems.

Asia: Hong Kong as a Regional Compliance Hub. On August 1, the “Stablecoin Regulations” officially took effect, requiring stablecoin issuers to obtain a license from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, with reserves pegged 1:1 to fiat currency and low-risk assets. By the end of September, 36 institutions had submitted license applications. This regulation not only standardizes stablecoin issuance but also lays the groundwork for Hong Kong to become an Asian crypto financial center.

After the new year, two new regulatory features emerged globally: the regulatory framework shifted from “fragmentation” to “unification,” with US federal laws and EU MiCA establishing cross-regional standards; the scope expanded from “centralized institutions” to include “decentralized ecosystems,” with DeFi and NFTs beginning to be regulated.

How Institutions Can Accelerate Compliance Implementation

The implementation of regulatory frameworks depends on proactive industry practices. In 2025, top platforms like Coinbase, OKX, and investment firms such as a16z and Fidelity actively promoted policy enforcement through compliance strategies, becoming bridges between regulation and the market.

Exchange Compliance Competition. Coinbase, as the earliest compliant US platform, obtained the first Bitcoin trading license in New York in 2014, followed by licenses in 46 states/regions, allowing legal operation across all 50 US states. In 2025, to adapt to the MiCA regulation, Coinbase moved its headquarters to Luxembourg, leveraging the MiCA license to cover all 27 European countries, and acquired Liquifi and Echo for asset issuance and public sales.

OKX built industry benchmarks with a “global license layout + technical compliance.” As early as 2024, it became the first global exchange to obtain full operational approval in the UAE, and the same year, it acquired a major Singaporean payment license. After MiCA took effect, OKX became one of the first exchanges to operate under a MiCA license in Europe. Strict KYC/AML compliance, diverse regulated products, and a global compliance and risk control team exceeding 600 personnel characterize OKX. In 2025, OKX also expanded into the US market, obtaining licenses in about 47 states, and appointed former NYDFS head Linda Lacewell as Chief Legal Officer.

Binance, previously troubled by compliance issues, accelerated global licensing in 2025, obtaining licenses in 30 countries, and recently received a comprehensive license under the Abu Dhabi ADGM/FSRA framework, becoming the first exchange fully licensed under this regime.

Investment Firms Driving Policy. In 2025, a16z invested over $100 million to promote crypto compliance, participating in the revision of the GENIUS Act and the “Digital Asset Market Clarity Act,” advocating for inclusion of “innovation protection” clauses and exemptions for decentralized protocols. Fidelity, BlackRock, and other financial giants issued Bitcoin spot ETFs and managed crypto assets, aligning with regulatory progress, and engaged with governments and regulators to promote clear and practical regulatory frameworks.

Outlook for the Post-2025 Era: A New Path to $10 Trillion

Unregulated growth was the biggest bottleneck limiting crypto industry development — the FTX collapse led to a 70% market contraction in 2022, and regulatory ambiguity deterred traditional institutions. The improvement of the compliance framework in 2025 is opening new growth space for the market.

Enterprise Asset Allocation Initiatives. Due to regulatory uncertainties, most enterprises adopted a wait-and-see attitude toward crypto assets. After the clear global compliance framework in 2025, corporate capital has accelerated into the space. According to CoinGecko, in the first three quarters of 2025, the global enterprise-level crypto asset allocation exceeded $120 billion, a 450% increase compared to all of 2024. Institutional participation not only brings incremental capital but also enhances liquidity and stability of crypto assets.

Explosive Growth of Crypto ETFs. After the GENIUS Act took effect, the SEC relaxed approval standards for crypto ETFs, with dozens approved by the end of 2025. By year-end, total assets under management of US crypto ETFs surpassed $140 billion, with BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF reaching $70 billion, becoming the most popular and fastest-growing product. The widespread adoption of ETFs allows ordinary investors to participate in crypto markets through traditional brokers without direct platform interaction, greatly lowering participation barriers.

Implementation of Ecosystem Use Cases. Compliance not only brings capital growth but also reconstructs ecological value. Under the compliant framework, crypto asset applications extend from speculative trading to real economy use cases — Walmart and Amazon are exploring cross-border supply chain settlements using stablecoins, with settlement costs projected to decrease by 60%. These real-world scenarios enable crypto assets to truly integrate into traditional finance and the real economy, providing solid support for the $10 trillion market target.

From unregulated wild growth to the full implementation of the 2025 compliance framework, the crypto industry has taken more than a decade to cross into mainstream finance. The post-2025 development is not the end but a new beginning of the “Golden Decade.” As global compliance networks form and traditional capital and real economy accelerate integration, the crypto market is moving from the periphery to the center. Compliance will continue to be the core driver, pushing the industry toward a breakthrough from $3 trillion to $10 trillion, and rebuilding the global financial value system.

Despite market panic at the end of 2025, at the beginning of 2026, industry builders should not only hold hope but also focus on doing every task at hand. Because history has shown that when Satoshi Nakamoto wrote that white paper 17 years ago, he did not know a whole new industry would be born. Today, every step we take could shape the future of the crypto industry.