For much of the past decade, the Asia Pacific was treated as crypto’s permissive frontier. A region where innovation could move faster than policy, where scale often came before supervision, and where enforcement lagged ambition.

That era is ending.

As the region heads into 2026, crypto is no longer being tested on its ability to grow. It is being tested on its ability to comply.

What is emerging across the Asia Pacific is a coordinated tightening of standards that increasingly resemble those applied to systemically important financial institutions.

In effect, the region is running a stress test on its crypto ecosystem, one that will expose which players are built for institutional participation and which were designed for regulatory arbitrage.

TRM Labs’ Global Crypto Policy Review & Outlook 2025/26 captures the scale of this shift. Eighty per cent of reviewed jurisdictions, including APAC, now have financial institutions that have actively launched digital asset initiatives, a signal that regulatory clarity is no longer a constraint on adoption, but a prerequisite for it.

The impact is already visible. In Hong Kong, a safety-first regulatory framework has coincided with a 233% YoY increase in the total transaction amount of digital asset-related products and tokenised assets in banks, reaching HK$26.1 billion in the first half of 2025 alone.

Rather than suppressing activity, tighter oversight has begun to channel it toward compliant venues and regulated use cases.

Similar dynamics are unfolding elsewhere. Indonesia’s transfer of crypto oversight to its Financial Services Authority, alongside the region-wide enforcement of the FATF Travel Rule, marks a decisive shift in how digital assets are governed. Compliance is now an operating condition.

This is where the real test begins.

How these policy shifts unfold across the Asia Pacific, and which markets, models, and players are structurally prepared for the next phase of crypto regulation, will define the region’s digital asset landscape over the next 12 months.

2025 Was the Year Regulation Became APAC’s Cornerstone

In 2025, at the risk of stating the obvious, crypto adoption across the Asia Pacific accelerated because of regulation. The significance of this shift was growth, coupled with the fact that participation became viable for institutions operating at scale.

While global attention often gravitated toward US policy momentum, the APAC region quietly reinforced its position. Its regulators doubled down on clear, proportionate rules and frameworks that translated directly into institutional participation, product rollout, and economic use cases.

Angela Ang, Head of Policy for Strategic Partnerships APAC at TRM Labs, elaborated,

“APAC continues to define what forward-looking crypto regulation looks like — from tokenization to stablecoins to next-generation payments.”

Hong Kong emerged as one of the clearest examples of this shift. The launch of its stablecoin licensing framework, alongside the steady expansion of permissible services for licensed virtual asset platforms, marked a decisive move toward institutional-grade crypto infrastructure.

Singapore, meanwhile, leaned into its long-held regulatory philosophy of credibility over speed. It tightened AML controls, expanded licensing requirements for offshore-facing crypto entities, and advanced its MAS-regulated stablecoin framework.

The immediate effect was a higher bar for entry. The longer-term effect was consolidation around fewer, better-governed players capable of supporting institutional use cases.

Japan and South Korea advanced stablecoin licensing and institutional trading pilots, reducing ambiguity around how traditional financial institutions could engage with digital assets.

Indonesia, meanwhile, completed a landmark transition by moving crypto oversight to its financial regulator, embedding digital assets more firmly within the securities framework.

Australia, Taiwan, and others pushed forward with licensing regimes, tax reforms, and custody rules that lowered uncertainty for banks and asset managers exploring digital assets. For institutional participants, this clarity was critical. It allowed risk, compliance, and treasury teams to evaluate crypto exposure within familiar regulatory boundaries.

Stablecoins increasingly became the entry point for adoption, particularly for payments, settlements, and cross-border use cases. As frameworks matured, financial institutions reinforced a broader conclusion: validating the idea that regulation, when designed well, functions less as a constraint and more as an accelerator.

Global Enforcement Bodies Raise the Compliance Bar

While local regulators shape the rules on the ground, the Financial Action Task Force sets the global baseline that APAC markets must meet to stay relevant.

In late 2025, FATF expanded its list of jurisdictions with “materially important” crypto sectors from 58 to 67. Select APAC markets were included, sending a clear message: these ecosystems need operate with supervision.

Crucially, 85% of these hubs have already implemented the Travel Rule. By 2026, sharing sender and recipient information will be a basic requirement for firms operating in the region.

The focus is also shifting. In 2026, FATF attention moves from whether rules exist to whether they are being enforced properly. A dedicated review of stablecoin risks is expected in early 2026, which will put additional pressure on payment providers across Asia.

For financial hubs like Hong Kong and Singapore, aligning local regulations with FATF standards is essential for maintaining access to global liquidity, correspondent relationships, and institutional capital. Firms that fall short risk exclusion from international markets.

From Blueprint to Hard Launch

The Asia-Pacific region is entering 2026 with a synchronised, high-stakes operational calendar that shifts the industry from policy debate to technical execution. The timeline below makes one thing clear: 2026 will be the year of the hard launch.

APAC crypto regulation in 2026 will change extensively. On 1 January 2026, Vietnam’s DTI Law officially takes effect, while the OECD’s Crypto-Asset Reporting Framework (CARF) begins its reporting period in over 50 jurisdictions, mandating automated tax transparency.

Next, Hong Kong will be issuing its first stablecoin licenses early in the year, and by 30 June 2026, ASIC’s “no-action” relief for Australian digital asset businesses will expire, requiring firms to have secured an AFSL or notify of an intent to apply.

Singapore has taken a more cautious approach, deferring the implementation of its bank crypto-asset capital rules to 2027. The decision follows industry feedback highlighting the need for additional time and greater global coordination.

MAS has said it will continue monitoring international regulatory developments and advances in blockchain technology before finalising the implementation date.

To conclude, in APAC, the regulatory phase shift is actively in the works. The next twelve months will decide who is structurally viable in an institutional financial system that has already moved on.

Featured image edited by Fintech News Singapore based on image by thanyakij-12 on Freepik