Ghana
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act passed in December 2025 and a twelve-month regulatory sandbox opened in March 2026 with 11 firms admitted, ahead of full licences under shared Bank of Ghana and SEC oversight.
Jurisdictions
How each regime treats tokenized instruments and the institutions that issue them: what is in force, what is proposed, who supervises it, and when we last checked. Grouped by region, not ranked.
Jurisdictions tracked
16
Regimes in force
8
Counted on the stage below, which is one of 7 controlled terms.
Regulators named
63
At a glance
One row per jurisdiction. "Last verified" is the date the desk last read the primary source, not the date the rule was made.
| Jurisdiction | Region | Stage | Frameworks | Supervisors | Last verified |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | North America | Awaiting implementation | 13 | 9 | 25 July 2026 |
| European Union | Europe | In force | 10 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| United Kingdom | Europe | Phasing in | 11 | 3 | 25 July 2026 |
| Switzerland | Europe | Partly in force | 6 | 3 | 25 July 2026 |
| Singapore | Asia-Pacific | Partly in force | 8 | 1 | 25 July 2026 |
| Hong Kong | Asia-Pacific | In force | 8 | 3 | 25 July 2026 |
| Japan | Asia-Pacific | In force | 7 | 2 | 25 July 2026 |
| United Arab Emirates | Middle East | In force | 8 | 5 | 25 July 2026 |
| Nigeria | Africa | In force | 7 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| Kenya | Africa | In force | 5 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| South Africa | Africa | Partly in force | 6 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| Ghana | Africa | In force | 6 | 3 | 25 July 2026 |
| Brazil | Latin America | In force | 8 | 3 | 25 July 2026 |
| India | Asia-Pacific | No dedicated regime | 6 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| China | Asia-Pacific | Prohibited | 5 | 4 | 25 July 2026 |
| Global standard setters | Global | Standards only | 11 | 7 | 25 July 2026 |
What each stage means
- In force
- A dedicated framework applies and the supervisor is authorising firms under it. Whether any licence has yet been granted, and to whom, is in the status line on the jurisdiction page.
- Phasing in
- The rules are final and the dates on which they bite are published, but the regime is not yet operating. Firms cannot be authorised under it today.
- Awaiting implementation
- The statute is law and the implementing rules are not. Until they are final there is nothing for a firm to comply with, whatever the enactment date suggests.
- Partly in force
- One part of the regime applies while another remains a proposal: commonly tokenized securities settled and stablecoins not, or the reverse. The scope line says which part is which.
- No dedicated regime
- No framework addresses these instruments directly. They are reached instead through tax, anti-money-laundering registration or general financial law, which is a different thing from being unregulated.
- Prohibited
- Issuance, trading or both are forbidden. A prohibition is a regime and is tracked as one, because it moves, and because firms elsewhere are bound by its extraterritorial reach.
- Standards only
- Recommendations and standards with no direct legal force, which national regimes then implement to varying degrees. The gap between the standard and its implementation is the finding.
By region
Each entry opens on the regime in force and what it covers.
Africa
Kenya
The Virtual Asset Service Providers Act commenced in November 2025 and its implementing regulations were gazetted on July 24, 2026, opening licensing under supervision split between the Central Bank and the Capital Markets Authority.
Nigeria
The Investments and Securities Act 2025 treats virtual and digital assets as securities and criminalises unlicensed operation, but no firm holds a final licence (nine have approvals-in-principle) and digital-asset gains became taxable in 2026.
South Africa
Crypto assets have been financial products requiring an FSCA licence since October 2022, with 300 of 512 applications approved by January 2026, while dedicated stablecoin and tokenization frameworks are still being developed.
Asia-Pacific
China
A February 2026 notice from eight regulators extended the 2021 crypto ban to stablecoin issuance and to overseas tokenization by Chinese firms, channelling digital-money development exclusively through the e-CNY.
Hong Kong
The Stablecoins Ordinance has been in force since August 2025, and in April 2026 the HKMA granted the first two issuer licences: to an Anchorpoint joint venture of Standard Chartered, Animoca and HKT, and to HSBC.
India
Virtual digital assets are taxed at 30% and exchanges must register for anti-money-laundering purposes, but there is no licensing law: a parliamentary committee is studying the question and the Reserve Bank has argued for ring-fencing or prohibition.
Japan
Stablecoin issuance stays restricted to licensed banks, trust companies and funds-transfer providers, while an Act enacted in July 2026 moves crypto assets themselves out of the Payment Services Act and into the Financial Instruments and Exchange Act from April 2027.
Singapore
Digital payment token services have been licensed since 2020, but the single-currency stablecoin framework finalised in 2023 still has no enabling legislation, so issuance continues to be regulated under existing law.
Europe
European Union
MiCA is fully applicable: the last national grandfathering windows closed on July 1, 2026 and the ESMA register lists more than 300 authorised service providers, but not one authorised asset-referenced token issuer.
Switzerland
Ledger-based securities and DLT trading facilities have been lawful since 2021, while dedicated stablecoin and crypto-institution licences remain a proposal on which consultation closed in February 2026.
United Kingdom
The FCA published the five policy statements completing its cryptoasset rulebook on June 30, 2026; firms can apply from September 30, 2026 and the full regime applies from October 2027, with the Bank of England's systemic stablecoin Code still to be finalised.
Global
Global standard setters
Standard setters have agreed the reference framework (FSB recommendations, the Basel cryptoasset standard, the FATF travel rule and IOSCO's conduct expectations) and their own reviews find implementation of it uneven.
Latin America
Brazil
Four central bank resolutions operationalising the 2022 crypto law took effect in February 2026, requiring authorisation and minimum capital of service providers and bringing stablecoin transactions inside the foreign exchange regime.
Middle East
United Arab Emirates
Payment tokens require a CBUAE licence and full reserve backing, with Dubai's VARA, ADGM's FSRA and the DFSA running parallel regimes for virtual assets and tokenized instruments alongside the federal framework.
North America
United States
A federal licensing regime for payment stablecoin issuers is law, but every implementing rule was still at the proposed stage when the statute's own rulemaking deadline passed, and the companion market-structure bill has yet to reach a Senate floor vote.
No jurisdiction matches every filter at once. Clear one to widen the view.