Headline
The money, identity & compliance super-cycle has started.
For the first time in 50 years, rules for what counts as money (regulated stable-coins) and how we prove who we are (verifiable-credential wallets) are switching on together—while 100-plus regulators demand that every crypto payment carry identity data. The result: an historic opening for new rails that move value and credentials in the same packet.
| Region | Stable-coin regime | Digital-ID / VC wallet rule | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| EU 🇪🇺 | MiCA e-money & asset-reference token rules live 30 Jun 2024 (Legal Nodes) | eIDAS 2.0 Digital ID Wallet law in force 20 May 2024 (European Commission) | 🟢 |
| UK 🇬🇧 | CP25/14 draft rules—FCA final text due late 2025 (FCA) | DIATF will certify private ID-wallet providers in 2026 (draft mandate) | 🟡 |
| US 🇺🇸 | GENIUS Act signed 18 Jul 2025—first federal stable-coin charter (The White House) | NIST mobile-DL spec finalised; pilots under DHS | 🟡 |
| Singapore 🇸🇬 | MAS “single-currency stable-coin” framework active since 2024 (mas.gov.sg) | SingPass wallet adds verifiable credentials (gov & bank) | 🟢 |
| Hong Kong 🇭🇰 | Stable-coin Licensing Ordinance in force 1 Aug 2025 (Mayer Brown) | iAM Smart wallet upgrade to W3C VC standard, underway | 🟡 |
| Brazil 🇧🇷 | Law 14 478/22—BCB drafting crypto-VASP & stable-coin rules 2025 (GLI) | gov.br ID wallet at 150 m+ users | 🟢 |
| Nigeria 🇳🇬 | SEC framework classifies stable-coins as regulated securities (Jul 2025) (CoinCentral) | NIMC digital ID wallet pilot launches 2025 | 🟡 |
Travel-Rule reach: 99 jurisdictions now have—or are finalising—laws forcing identity metadata to accompany every crypto transfer. (FATF)
Together, these forces collapse the traditional trade-off between speed and compliance: payment, KYC proof, and audit trail can now travel in a single cryptographic envelope—any chain, any wallet, any corridor.