Stablecoin regulation, jurisdiction by jurisdiction
How stablecoins are regulated across thirty-seven jurisdictions: the authorisations required, the companies that hold them, and the rules changing around them. Each jurisdiction has its own detailed page.
The jurisdictions
Regulatory Calendar
- Pending Whether any state regime is certified in timeIf no state is certified before the Act takes effect, issuance would have to use the federal route, making the $10 billion state ceiling irrelevant.
- Vote indicated for 2026 The CLARITY Act and the spot-market gapIt would create CFTC-registered digital commodity exchanges and clarify which regulator oversees spot trading. Until then, exchanges operate inside an SEC and CFTC perimeter that has never been clearly drawn.
- By end 2026 Whether a third-country stablecoin can be fungible with its EU twinThe outcome will determine whether the largest dollar stablecoins can be offered in the EU at all, or only through separately reserved EU issuance.
- Expected in 2026 PSD3 and the PSR reach the Official JournalE-money institutions become a sub-category of payment institutions. Existing EMIs will need to transition to the new category during the implementation period.
- Target: end 2026 Digital euro trilogues aim to concludeA public euro rail distributed through banks, payment firms and regulated crypto firms changes the commercial case for a private euro e-money token.
- Expected in 2026 The Bank of England's systemic stablecoin rulesA sterling stablecoin that reaches systemic scale moves from FCA authorisation into the Bank of England's regime, with separate banking and capital requirements.
- Late 2026 to 2027 A Fintech Law reform covering crypto-assets and open financeThe current route to a licence averages about two years. A streamlined licensing tier is the single change that would move that figure.
- 18 January 2027 The GENIUS Act takes effect, rules or no rulesFrom that date, issuing dollar stablecoins in the US without Permitted Payment Stablecoin Issuer status is prohibited. No firm holds that status yet.
- 25 October 2027 The FSMA cryptoasset regime takes effectEvery UK cryptoasset firm on this page has to be authorised, not just registered, by that date.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many companies hold stablecoin-related authorisations worldwide?
Atlas tracks 11,587 authorisations across 8,205 companies, based on 64 official registers. Of those, 11,580 are in the 37 jurisdictions on this page.
Which jurisdiction has the most licensed stablecoin businesses?
Canada. It accounts for 31 percent of all authorisations tracked, around 1.3 times the US total. Its passporting system also makes a single national authorisation usable across the wider EEA.
Which jurisdiction is cheapest to be licensed in?
There is no clean answer. Capital requirements range from nothing to tens of millions, and currencies differ widely. A low floor can also mean an AML registration rather than a full operating licence. In practice, the time and scope of the authorisation matter more than the headline capital number.
Which regulator decides fastest?
Among jurisdictions that publish a formal decision period, the EU is the shortest on paper: 25 working days for the completeness check and 40 for the decision. In practice, applicants report six to nine months because the statutory clock starts only once the file is complete. Most regulators on this page publish no formal period.
Does a licence in one jurisdiction work in another?
Usually not. The main exception is the EU and wider EEA, where certain authorisations can be passported across member states. Elsewhere, a company operating in several jurisdictions generally needs a separate authorisation in each.
What is coming next in stablecoin regulation?
The next major dates are in the Regulatory Calendar. The nearest three: Whether any state regime is certified in time (United States, Pending); the CLARITY Act and the spot-market gap (United States, Vote indicated for 2026); Whether a third-country stablecoin can be fungible with its EU twin (European Union, By end 2026).
The official registers listed on each jurisdiction page. Where no public register is available, records are taken from company reporting and identified as such.
Checked daily. Changes are recorded when they appear in the register, together with the date they were first seen. Last checked 2 November 2026.
10 September 2026. Counts are refreshed daily. Licence terms, capital requirements and decision periods are dated separately because they come from the underlying rules, not the register itself.