From Beijing to Tokyo, Asian nations get active in crypto regulation: Law Decoded, May 22-29

The United States Senate Banking Committee elected to advance the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act in an 18-6 vote.None of the amendments proposed by Senator Elizabeth Warren made it into the bill, including her proposal to limit stablecoin issuance to banking institutions.“Without changes, this bill will supercharge the financing of terrorism. It will make sanctions evasion by Iran, North Korea, and Russia easier,” Warren argued.Senator Warren argues for amendments to be included in the bill. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOPSenator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, characterized the bill as a victory for innovation. The Senator said:”The GENIUS Act establishes Common Sense rules that require stablecoin issuers to maintain reserves backed one-to-one, comply with anti-money laundering laws, and ultimately protect American consumers while promoting the US dollar’s strength in the global economy.”The bill must still pass a vote in both chambers of Congress before it is turned over to President Trump and ultimately signed into law. However, the Senate Banking Committee advancing the bill represents the first step in clear, comprehensive legislation requested by the crypto industry.Senator Tim Scott, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, leads the hearing. Source: US Senate Banking Committee GOPRelated: The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi execGENIUS Act gets overhaul to feature stricter provisionsSenator Bill Hagerty, who introduced the bill in February 2025, defended the legislation against the proposed amendments from Senator Warren, arguing that the bill already includes provisions for consumer protection, Anti-Money Laundering, and crime prevention.On March 10, Hagerty announced that the bill was updated to include stricter reserve requirements for stablecoin issuers, AML provisions, safeguards against terrorist financing, transparent risk management procedures, and stipulations for sanctions compliance.According to Dom Kwok, founder of the Web3 learning platform Easy A, the newly added provisions will make it harder for foreign stablecoin issuers to comply, giving US-based firms a competitive edge.Senator Bill Hagerty defends his bill from proposed amendments. Source: Senate Banking Committee GOPAttorney Jeremy Hogan said the GENIUS Act signals an impending merger of the traditional financial system with stablecoins.“The legislation is explicitly making plans for stablecoins to interact with the traditional digital banking system. The ‘merge’ is being planned,” the attorney wrote in a March 10 X post.During the March 7 White House Crypto Summit, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent explicitly said that the Trump administration would leverage stablecoins to protect the US dollar’s global reserve status.Magazine: Bitcoin payments are being undermined by centralized stablecoins

Bankers and their allies in the US Senate are pushing back against the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act over fears that stablecoins will disintermediate banks and erode banking market share.According to an article from American Banker, the bill requires 60 votes to pass in the Senate, meaning that at least seven Democrats will have to vote with Republicans to push through the Act.This could prove a difficult proposition, as US Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of crypto’s staunchest political critics, is proposing an amendment prohibiting tech firms from issuing stablecoins. Warren wrote:“If these firms want to engage in payments, they must partner with, or facilitate transactions among, regulated financial institutions. But this stablecoin bill breaks that status quo by green-lighting big tech companies and other commercial conglomerates to issue their own stablecoins.”Digital assets continue to be a disruptive force in finance and banking due to near-instant settlement times and cheaper transaction fees, which significantly reduce the burden of cross-border payments and introduce peer-to-peer transactions.Page one of the GENIUS Act of 2025. Source: US SenateRelated: The GENIUS stablecoin bill is a CBDC trojan horse — DeFi execStablecoins: The way forward for USD in the 21st century?The GENIUS stablecoin bill was introduced by Senator Bill Hagerty on Feb. 4 as a comprehensive regulatory framework for tokenized US dollars.Shortly after the bill was introduced to the US Senate, Federal Reserve Bank Governor Christopher Waller said non-banks should be allowed to issue stablecoins.Waller argued that stablecoins could expand payment use cases, particularly in the developing world, due to their cost-savings and efficiency.Stablecoin fees vs. legacy payment processing solutions. Source: Simon TaylorBank of America CEO Brian Moynihan told an audience at the Economic Club of Washington DC that the bank may enter the stablecoin business — likely launching its own dollar-pegged stable token.During the first White House Crypto Summit on March 7, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the US will use stablecoins to extend US dollar dominance.Overcollateralized stablecoin issuers are collectively the 18th largest buyers of US government debt in the world — putting these firms ahead of countries like Germany and South Korea.By adopting pro-stablecoin policies and promoting stablecoin usage worldwide, the US government can use stablecoins as a sponge to soak up inflation and protect the dollar’s status as the global reserve currency.Magazine: Unstablecoins: Depegging, bank runs and other risks loom

Opinion by: Slava Demchuk, co-founder and CEO of AMLBotAll virtual asset service providers (VASPs) registered in the EU before 2025 must comply with Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) requirements this year. Not all will be able to do so. The MiCA regulation is, in essence, a good legal framework for the crypto industry, but it also has some disadvantages, especially for crypto startups and small businesses. Looking at the case of Estonia and its implementation of crypto licenses in 2017, it is possible to predict that around 75% of VASPs will need to cease their operations in the EU. What happened in Estonia with crypto licenses? In 2017, Estonia was one of the first EU member states to introduce a crypto licensing process. Getting a crypto license (a VASP registration) was easy and fast. No physical presence, share capital requirement, or proof of having sound Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) systems in place were required. The result? By 2019, Estonia had issued around 2,000 crypto licenses. Starting in 2019, however, Estonia adopted several amendments to the law, incorporating requirements similar to MiCA. As a consequence, the majority of licensed crypto companies were not able to comply with new requirements and lost their licenses. Today, Estonia has only around 45 licensed crypto businesses.Current situation in the EU with VASP registrationSimilar situations will occur in countries with light VASP registration requirements, such as Poland and the Czech Republic. There are around 1,600 VASPs registered in Poland, owing to the easy and fast process of registering in the country before the MiCA implementation. With minimal requirements, one can open a company and receive a VASP registration in these countries within a few weeks. These licensing processes completely changed in 2025 when MiCA entered fully into force. All the registered VASPs must comply with new requirements, which will be the same regardless of their country of incorporation; otherwise, they will be required to cease their business. Recent: 10 stablecoin issuers approved under EU’s MiCA — Tether is left outMost of them will not be able to comply, based on previous experience, such as when 1,900 companies lost their VASP registrations in Estonia. Those license losses occurred as a result of several key factors: Their size: Many registered VASPs were one-to-three-person companies that provided essential exchange in p2p platforms or over-the-counter. They will not have enough resources to comply with strict MiCA requirements.The cost: Acquiring a MiCA license is expensive. It was previously possible to receive VASP registration in Poland or the Czech Republic for 2,000-4,000 euros. The price for a MiCA license is much more than that, typically around 30,000-80,000 euros, depending on the business model and country of incorporation.The requirements: Companies that apply for a MiCA license must prove they have many complex processes in place, including but not limited to AML/KYC, data protection and cyber resilience. Therefore, the company must hire many specialists and build many processes. Based on the number of VASPs registered in Poland, those 1,600 VASPs will need to find 1,600 AML/compliance officers (one per VASP) by July 2025 — when all VASPs in Poland shall comply with MiCA — that have relevant knowledge, expertise and pass the fit-and-proper test. This will be nearly impossible.In addition, MiCA has high share capital requirements ranging from 50,000 to 150,000 euros, depending on the services a company provides. Many currently registered VASPs are startups or small companies whose revenue will not be able to cover all the costs needed to build the processes mentioned above and satisfy the share capital requirements. Where does that leave the small businesses and the startups? They will not be equipped to comply with MiCA.Opinion by: Slava Demchuk, co-founder and CEO of AMLBot.This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.