Was 2025 the year digital asset space got regulatory clarity?

2025 was a year of momentous developments in the digital asset space, many inspired by or directly linked to the administration of United States President Donald Trump, who took office in January and swiftly set about trying to realize his crypto-utopia. However, while the first year of Trump 2.0 certainly felt like a sea change for the treatment of digital assets in law and by regulators, upon looking back at the year, it becomes clear that not many of these developments involved legislation actually making it onto the statute books.

Nevertheless, some progress was made, and when considering the regulatory events of 2025, it’s almost impossible to overstate the impact of Trump’s pro-crypto platform, both in the U.S and globally.

While Trump issued executive orders to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and ensure that a central bank digital currency (CBDC) would not take hold in the U.S., he also lit a fire under his Republican colleagues to finally progress long-awaited stablecoin legislation in the country. Needless to say, this legislation leans innovation supportive rather than a more democrat-aligned consumer protection focus.

This tendency has been the story of much digital asset regulation in 2025, as the oversized influence of U.S. policy means the country remains a trend setter.

An example of this can be seen in the United Kingdom, another of the world’s top economies and top digital asset adopters. While the U.K.’s former compatriots in the European Union enjoyed their first full year of substantive and bespoke digital asset regulation—with the landmark Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation coming fully into force at the end of 2024—the U.K. took a comparatively wait and see approach, leaving the sector largely unregulated other than the country’s anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism (AML/CFT) rules and its financial promotion regime.

This kept the digital asset industry in the U.K. in a similar state of uncertainty that it felt in the U.S. under the regulatory stalemate of President Joe Biden’s administration.

However, recent comments from the Labour government of Prime Minister Kier Starmer have indicated that regulation is on the way, and it will take a U.S.-style innovation-supportive form. This was signaled clearly in December when HM Treasury announced that legislation had finally been introduced to parliament that would allow for the country’s top finance sector regulator to implement a digital asset regime.

The Treasury also made a point of highlighting its “ongoing work in partnership with the United States to foster innovation and growth in cryptoassets.”

The reveal of this notable step toward a regulatory framework, right at the finish line of 2025, was indicative of global trends in a year largely defined by an increasing urgency for progress toward digital asset regulation, but not much actually being passed. This pattern played out across the fastest-growing region in the world for digital asset adoption, the Asia-Pacific (APAC), where lawmakers in key jurisdictions, such as India and Vietnam, did a lot of barking about regulation, but without much bite.

And yet, this wasn’t the whole story of 2025. Looking to Africa, another of the world’s top crypto jurisdictions, Nigeria, showed how to get digital asset regulation done, with the passage of its Investments and Securities Act in March.

But before getting into the doers and dalliers around the globe, we must first look to the world’s top economy and financial trend-setter, to put the other regulatory efforts and developments into context.

Back to the top ↑

US makes progress, but stalemates remain

The pace of the U.S. legislative process is a frustrating crawl at the best of times, but the increasing polarization of politics has arguably led to even more stalemates in Congress of late. This was exemplified in the federal government shutdown from October 1 to November 12, 2025, as Congress failed to pass appropriations legislation for the 2026 fiscal year. This 43-day shutdown was the longest in U.S. history.

Such congressional fighting has naturally delayed, or killed outright, many attempts at substantive digital asset regulation over the past few years. In this respect, 2025 does represent a landmark, as it was the year that the U.S. finally got some legislation over the line.

The GENIUS Act was passed and signed into law in July, at the same time that the U.S. House of Representatives approved two further pieces of digital asset legislation: the market structure CLARITY Act, and the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act.

While the GENIUS Act, having already passed the Senate, went straight to the President’s desk to be rubber-stamped, the CLARITY Act and Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act still face an unknown fate. So, clarity for stablecoins in the U.S., less so for the rest of the digital asset space.

But President Trump’s second term has thus far been defined by executive order rather than legislation, and this was no exception when it came to progressing his goal of making the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.”

One of his first moves after taking office in January was to sign the executive order titled “Strengthening American Leadership in Digital Financial Technology,” which framed the digital asset industry as crucial to U.S. innovation, economic growth, and international leadership. It also outlined five major mandates aimed at bolstering the digital asset space, including supporting dollar-backed stablecoins, legal protections for blockchain users, and a ban on CBDCs.

Trump followed this up, in March, by signing an executive order titled the “Establishment of the Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and United States Digital Asset Stockpile” to create a strategic Bitcoin reserve.

These moves were accompanied by the president installing crypto-favorable faces in key regulatory positions. None more significant than the appointment of Paul Atkins as chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the agency that was formerly the bane of many in the digital asset space under its previous chair, Gary Gensler, and his “regulation by enforcement” approach.

As expected, with Atkins coming in, out went the SEC’s more confrontational approach to the digital asset space.

All these changes had the side effect of sending a message to the industry that the U.S. was open to digital asset business, as well as signaling to the rest of the world that the global powerhouse was backing this growing sector – and therefore, maybe they should too.

One jurisdiction that appears to be taking this hint is the U.K.

Back to the top ↑

UK seeks to follow

Depending on who you talk to, the U.K. has a black hole in its budget between £20 billion ($26.7 billion) and £40 billion ($53.4 billion)—a hole that giving up access to the EU single market in 2016 made much harder to fill.

This deficit has encouraged the government to embrace ever more tightly the “special relationship” with the U.S., whether that manifests in a reluctance to criticize Trump on just about anything, or watching how the economic powerhouse across the pond approaches financial regulation, and copying it.

When passed, the legislation is set to come into force in 2027, finally providing a regulatory regime for digital assets in the country.

For its part, the FCA launched a consultation on its proposed approach, promising to take into account the “unique aspects of cryptoassets.” The regulator also set out, in December, ambitious new growth targets for 2026, including support for locally issued sterling stablecoins, artificial intelligence (AI) digitization, and tokenization.

While these various measures and promises represent policy progress for the digital assets sector in the U.K., they still fall into the category of ‘yet-to-be-realized’ regulatory—a situation mirrored by many other key crypto jurisdictions in 2025.

Back to the top ↑

APAC adoption booming but regulation lagging

According to blockchain analysis firm Chainalysis, the fastest-growing region in the world for crypto adoption in 2025 was APAC, and leading the the region is India.

Much like the U.K., India started the year without any significant digital asset regulation on the statute and will finish 2025 in the same state. In June, it appeared as though the government was set to unveil a comprehensive discussion paper on digital asset regulation. Still, by September, it was revealed that there had concerns that integrating digital assets into the country’s mainstream financial infrastructure could pose systemic threats. Therefore, the favored approach was now one of limited oversight—i.e., the current status quo in India.

In contrast, Vietnam, which placed sixth in Chainalysis’ global crypto adoption index and was highlighted for its “widespread adoption across both centralized and decentralized services,” made notably more progress toward providing some certainty and clarity for the digital asset industry.

In January, the Politburo—the body that directs Vietnam’s government—introduced Resolution No. 57, committing the country to technology development, innovation, and digital transformation.

This was followed, in June, by the country officially legalizing digital assets with the passage of the Law on Digital Technology Industry. The broad-reaching legislation did not come with specific digital asset rules, but it did provide a definition for digital assets and allowed for this new asset class to have clear property rights.

In September, the country took a significant step toward establishing a regulatory framework when Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Ho Duc Phoc signed a resolution implementing a five-year pilot program for a digital asset market framework.

The pilot brings with it stringent requirements affecting domestic and foreign investors, as well as an equally strict licensing regime for digital asset service providers. The framework establishes new rules for the trading and issuance of digital assets, with the emphasis on a safety-first approach.

With the pilot’s introduction, which took effect immediately, any businesses and organizations providing digital asset services, issuing digital assets, participating in digital asset investment, and operating in the Vietnamese market were subject to a range of new controls, such as the offering, issuance, trading, and payment of digital assets having to be made in Vietnamese Dong.

Another mandate required that digital assets be issued based on underlying “real assets,” excluding securities or fiat currencies, effectively banning fiat currency-backed digital assets.

Most recently, the passage of the ‘Law on Digital Transformation’ in December followed in the footsteps of Resolution No. 57, which designated the Ministry of Science and Technology (MST) as the regulator for all activities in the digital economy and society, encompassing all digital platforms. This provided further clarity on who would be the regulatory body overseeing the digital asset space going forward.

Looking at these various measures, one may be forgiven for a feeling of mixed messages. On the one hand, the country appears to be vocally embracing the digital economy and digital assets, with definitions and a clearly defined regulator, but on the other hand, the pilot framework appears somewhat restrictive. In addition, the fact remains that it is just a pilot; the country is still without a digital asset regulatory framework fully enshrined in law.

Looking beyond APAC, mixed messages were a regulatory theme that played out in other major crypto jurisdictions in 2025.

Back to the top ↑

Nigeria shows how to get legislation done, but to debatable effect

Nigeria, the sixth-largest jurisdiction in the world for digital asset adoption, has also spent the year yo-yo-ing on whether to back or restrict the space.

In one respect, it showed the APAC regulatory feet-draggers how to get things done, with the passage of its Investments and Securities Act (ISA) 2025 in March. ISA recognized virtual and digital assets as securities and brought them—and firms that deal in them—within the country’s regulatory framework under the Nigerian SEC, from whom they must now obtain a license to operate in the country.

This move appeared to signal financial inclusion for this new asset type in the country, and inspired optimism from observers, as noted by the ‘big four’ accountancy firm PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) at the time: “Virtual and digital assets can expand Nigeria’s investor base, particularly among younger generations who widely adopt these technologies.”

It added that “this can also create opportunities for fintech companies to engage with the capital market.”

This could be seen as positive progress for the industry, providing clarity that has been sorely lacking in other notable jurisdictions.

However, the flip side of this coin is that the Nigerian SEC has not been particularly forthcoming with licenses. The regulator issued its first two provisional virtual asset service provider (VASP) permits in September 2024, before ISA was passed, but since then, dozens of VASPs have reportedly applied for the license without receiving one. This has led some industry insiders to lament the slow pace of implementing the new regulations and of issuing licenses.

So, while Nigeria made more progress than many jurisdictions when it comes to digital asset regulation, it appears it did not entirely provide the much-needed certainty for which the industry has been crying out.

Back to the top ↑

Looking back and forward

Taking a look at 2025 as a whole, of the world’s top digital asset jurisdictions, Nigeria was the only one to join the EU in having put substantial legislation for digital assets on the statute books.

The global powerhouse of the U.S. may have finally passed stablecoin regulation, but it has yet to come into force, and it is yet to be joined by digital asset market structure legislation.

Dragging our eyes and ears away from the attention vacuum that is Trump’s America, the regulatory situation in other top jurisdictions, such as the U.K., India, and Vietnam, was very much one of discussion and development. There was some progress in 2025 toward digital asset regulation across many of these key jurisdictions, but until it is actually passed and comes into force, the industry remains in a state of limbo and arrested development.

Thus, when looking back on the year it will more likely be remembered as the beginning of a change in the tide, rather than the big wave itself; the year the world began to take more notice and—spurred on by the crypto-enthusiasm of world leaders such as President Trump, Argentina’s Javier Milei, and Russia’s Vladimir Putin—upped the urgency for regulation.

In other words, while legislation on statute books remains sparse across major digital asset jurisdictions, there is reason to be optimistic that 2026 may bring more regulatory certainty and clarity for a digital asset space that is becoming ever more mainstream.

Back to the top ↑

Watch: Breaking down solutions to blockchain regulation hurdles

title=”YouTube video player” frameborder=”0″ allow=”accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share” referrerpolicy=”strict-origin-when-cross-origin” allowfullscreen=””>