The post Regional Crypto Power Balance Is Shifting as Japan ‘Ready to Pop’ appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.

Good Morning, Asia. Here’s what’s making news in the markets: Welcome to Asia Morning Briefing, a daily summary of top stories during U.S. hours and an overview of market moves and analysis. For a detailed overview of U.S. markets, see CoinDesk’s Crypto Daybook Americas. The conventional wisdom holds that the battle for Asia’s crypto hub is a contest between Singapore and Hong Kong. Both cities have English as an official language and use Western-inspired common law in their court system. But during Token2049, executives weren’t debating whether Singapore or Hong Kong would win the title of Asia’s crypto hub. Instead, they were talking about how Japan, once written off as overregulated, had quietly become the region’s most credible market for real trading volume, staking infrastructure, and institutional growth. “Japan had no regulation for a long time, don’t forget, that’s where crypto basically happened, and then it went super stringent, and nothing happened for a long time,” Konstantin Richter, the CEO of Blockdaemon, told CoinDesk during Token2049. “But people kept on chiming away, and now they actually have a regulatory infrastructure that’s institutionally scalable and about ready to pop. Whereas here [in Singapore], it was a free fall, and now they’re starting to build up regulation.” Singapore moved fast and then tightened. It opened its doors early to crypto firms, building a reputation as Asia’s sandbox for innovation. That worked, until it didn’t. The collapse of FTX and other failures exposed weak consumer protections, prompting the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to swing toward heavy supervision in 2024. The result: higher compliance costs, mandatory custody segregation, external audits, and slower licensing. Those that don’t like it have to leave, even if they aren’t serving Singapore-based customers. It’s a lot of work for a relatively small market. “Singapore was so crypto-friendly that…

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Filed under: News - @ October 7, 2025 5:28 am