Episode 128 — What Is Crypto Regulation — How Governments Are Catching Up

EPISODE 128 — What Is Crypto Regulation — How Governments Are Catching Up

For most of crypto's history, governments' regulatory position could be summarised as uncertainty. The FTX collapse in November 2022 — where a company that had testified before the US Congress turned out to be misusing customer funds at enormous scale — accelerated the end of that uncertainty. By 2026, the regulatory landscape for crypto is fundamentally different from what it was three years ago. Understanding the rules is no longer optional.

In this episode of Crypto for Beginners, we explain crypto regulation in 2026 across the major jurisdictions that matter most for our listeners. We start with the EU's MiCA framework — the most comprehensive crypto regulation anywhere in the world. We explain what MiCA actually requires: mandatory authorisation for crypto asset service providers, strict rules on segregating customer funds from company funds, mandatory disclosure requirements for token issuers, market manipulation prohibitions covering pump and dump schemes, and specific reserve and governance requirements for stablecoins. We explain the passporting system that gives MiCA-authorised companies access to all 27 EU member states.

We cover DAC8 — the EU directive requiring crypto platforms to report transaction data to tax authorities across all member states — and the equivalent US requirement of the 1099-DA form. We explain how the US FIT21 Act approaches the commodity versus security classification question for crypto assets. We cover what MiCA means for stablecoin access in Europe — why Tether USDT faced compliance questions and some exchanges delisted it. We explain what all of this means practically for Belgian and European listeners. We cover DeFi's ambiguous regulatory position, how the EU and US approach decentralised protocols, and what the global regulatory trajectory looks like for 2027 and beyond.

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