Key Highlights
- 27, 2025 at 8:04 pm UTC Share Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate.
- Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
- In 2025, crypto regulation stopped being mostly about courtroom theater and started focusing on actual infrastructure. Debates over how or whether to regulate crypto became less philosophical and more operational.
- Regulators spent the year answering the “boring” questions that decide whether a market can scale: who is allowed to issue a “digital dollar,” what backs it, how fast investors can get a regulated wrapper like an ETF, and what counts as proper custody when the asset is a private key instead of a paper certificate. That’s why 2025 mattered even if you never read a single bill.
- Most of this year’s new regulations didn’t focus on punishing bad actors. Instead, they focused on whether banks can plug into stablecoins without risking their charters, whether exchanges can serve customers without building around regulatory gaps, and whether new products can launch on a predictable timetable instead of a case-by-case marathon. With the end of the year right around the corner, it’s clear that none of the big jurisdictions were aligned on regulation.
