Explainers

The cancellation of a parliamentary hearing on virtual digital assets highlights a larger question for India: how long can taxation and AML controls serve as a substitute for a comprehensive crypto regulatory framework?

Explore how the EU is advancing the digital euro while tightening crypto regulations through new sanctions, reinforcing Europe's digital finance strategy and monetary sovereignty.

Taiwan’s evolving crypto framework combines robust AML standards, regulatory sandboxes, and a proposed Virtual Asset Service Act to support responsible innovation while strengthening consumer protection and financial stability.

Indonesia stands at a fascinating crossroads in the global digital asset revolution. With one of the world's largest populations of retail crypto enthusiasts and a tech-savvy younger generation driving adoption, the nation has transformed from a relatively permissive trading environment into a more structured, Indonesia Financial Services Authority (OJK) supervised marketplace. As innovation races ahead, questions linger about whether this balanced approach will foster sustai

The BIS’s Project Agorá prototype demonstrates how tokenized central bank money and atomic settlement could reshape cross-border wholesale payments through faster settlement, embedded compliance, and interoperability without sacrificing national control.

The FDIC’s 2026 stablecoin AML proposal highlights growing global convergence on anti-money-laundering standards for digital payment issuers and crypto regulation.

A 2026 IMF policy note explores how tokenized finance could transform banking, payments, and capital markets through programmable digital assets while highlighting key risks around governance, fragmentation, and financial stability.

Registries are re-emerging as a critical layer of digital financial infrastructure, providing authoritative records that verify ownership, enable interoperability, and support trust in modern financial markets.

As digital asset markets draw greater interest from banks, asset managers, hedge funds, and family offices, the question of custody has become central to institutional participation.

Europe’s eIDAS 2.0 framework marks a shift from national digital identity schemes to interoperable trust infrastructure at continental scale. This article examines the European Digital Identity Wallet and draws comparative lessons for India’s digital public infrastructure and global interoperability.

As registries proliferate across digital systems, authority has become the defining factor that separates reference infrastructure from simple data repositories. This article examines the institutional, legal, and governance conditions that make registries authoritative and explains why authority is essential for interoperability and programmable finance.

Financial systems are increasingly embedding rules directly into infrastructure rather than enforcing them after transactions occur. This article examines why programmability is emerging as a structural response to scale, complexity, and regulatory demands, and why trust registries are essential to making programmable finance reliable and accountable.

Every society relies on registries to establish trust. A land registry shows who owns a piece of property. A professional registry...

Registries have always been instruments of trust. Land deeds, professional licences, and company filings established ownership and...