- Regulators will pursue rules and sandboxes that prioritize national innovation and competitiveness.
- Implementation steps on the GENIUS Act and market-structure rules will open the US market to new entrants such as stablecoin issuers, tech firms, payment companies, and banks.
- Institutional adoption of stablecoins and tokenized assets will expand, including increased participation in DeFi and tokenized financial services.
- Sanctions authorities and firms will increase focus on crypto-related sanctions compliance, relying on blockchain analytics and screening tools.
Compliance teams and policymakers should monitor five regulatory and policy developments set to shape cryptoasset markets in 2026. These trends follow major actions in 2025 and affect regulators, market entrants, financial institutions, and sanctions enforcement globally. The developments center on national policy priorities, US rulemaking, institutional adoption, sanctions effectiveness, and analytics innovations.
Regulators will aim to align crypto rules with national strategies for innovation and competitiveness. Expect expanded regulatory sandboxes like those in Hong Kong and the Sandbox/stablecoins-cohort”>UK regulatory sandbox, plus cross-border initiatives such as the US-UK Transatlantic Taskforce for Markets of the Future. Some jurisdictions will adopt targeted exemptive relief to speed market growth, following moves to ease dual licensing in markets such as Australia and proposals discussed in the context of an innovation exemption.
The US will advance rules to implement the GENIUS Act and pursue market-structure legislation, creating pathways for new entrants including stablecoin issuers, tech platforms, payments firms, and banks. Regulators will also encourage greater use of blockchain analytics as part of regulatory compliance, a trend described as a process already underway in the US.
Global institutional adoption will accelerate, building on the recent surge of institutional interest in 2025. Major banks and financial firms will expand services for stablecoins and tokenized assets, and regulated participation in DeFi will prompt complex regulatory debate as noted in reporting on contentious hearings.
Sanctions authorities will sharpen efforts against evasion involving cryptoassets, following coordinated actions on issues such as ruble-backed stablecoins. Regulators will issue guidance on sanctions expectations and increase scrutiny of firms’ blockchain-based screening.
Finally, analytics vendors introduced new tools in 2025 to support compliance, including integration of AI into blockchain analysis and services enabling direct queries into intelligence platforms. One provider described its AI integration on its platform here and launched a Data Fabric service to link on-chain and off-chain data for investigators. These capabilities will underpin regulatory regimes and sanctions screening in 2026.
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