License Framework Guides
10 long-form license framework guides from the DeFi Intel research desk. Each entry runs 2,000–3,500 words with a 7–9-section structure, executive summary, and bull/bear/watch-points rail.
MiCA — Crypto-Asset Service Provider Authorisation
MiCA is the first large-economy crypto framework written from a clean sheet rather than retrofitted from securities law. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 layers three regimes onto European crypto activity: an asset-reference…
GENIUS Act — US Federal Stablecoin Issuance Charter
The GENIUS Act, signed by President Trump on 18 July 2025, is the United States' first federal stablecoin statute. It creates two parallel issuance pathways — a federal OCC charter for permitted payment stablecoin iss…
NYDFS BitLicense — Virtual Currency Business Activity
BitLicense was the first serious US state attempt to license crypto firms as a distinct activity, promulgated by then-NYDFS Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky as 23 NYCRR Part 200 effective 8 August 2015. A decade in, the…
MAS PSA — Singapore Payment Services Act Licence
Singapore's Payment Services Act 2019 created the world's first comprehensive digital-payment-token licensing regime within a unified payments statute. Three licence tiers — Money-Changing Licence, Standard Payment In…
VARA — Dubai Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority
Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority was established by Dubai Law No. 4 of 2022 issued by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on 9 March 2022, making Dubai the first major jurisdiction with a standalone crypt…
FIT21 — US Digital Commodities and Securities Market Structure Act
FIT21 is the first crypto market-structure bill in US history to clear a chamber of Congress with a bipartisan supermajority. The 279-136 House vote on 22 May 2024 was the proof-of-concept that a crypto statute could …
FCA Cryptoasset Firm Registration
The FCA cryptoasset firm registration regime is the most-rejected major crypto licensing programme in any G20 jurisdiction. Operating under Part 5A of the Money Laundering Regulations 2017 since January 2020, the regi…
JFSA Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider Registration
Japan was the first major economy to formally license cryptocurrency exchanges. The Payment Services Act amendment effective April 2017 created the Crypto Asset Exchange Service Provider (CAESP) registration regime, p…
HK VATP — Virtual Asset Trading Platform Licence
Hong Kong's VATP regime is the most architecturally novel of any post-2023 crypto-exchange framework. Effective 1 June 2023 under amendments to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Ordinance (Cap.…
FATF Travel Rule (Recommendation 16) for VASPs
The FATF Travel Rule is the single most operationally consequential global standard ever applied to VASPs. Recommendation 16 — originally developed for the SWIFT-based correspondent banking system in the 1990s — was e…
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