In January 2024, Dubai’s Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA) issued its 19th operating licence for a digital asset company. The same month, Hong Kong approved its first batch of crypto exchange licences under a new regulatory framework. Singapore continued accepting Payment Services Act applications for blockchain-based businesses. While the United States debated crypto regulation, competing financial centres were building the regulatory and physical infrastructure to attract blockchain companies and capital. The global blockchain market reached $31.18 billion in 2025, per Fortune Business Insights, and the geographic distribution of that market is shifting as infrastructure expands beyond North America and Europe.
Regulatory Infrastructure: The Foundation of Global Expansion
Crypto infrastructure cannot expand without regulatory clarity. Exchanges, custodians, and payment providers need licences to operate legally. Institutional investors need regulated counterparties to meet their compliance requirements. Without clear rules, companies cannot scale and institutions cannot participate.
The European Union’s MiCA regulation, effective December 2024, created the largest unified regulatory framework for digital assets in the world. A company licensed under MiCA in any EU member state can operate across all 27 countries. This framework attracted blockchain companies to the EU and provided the certainty that institutional investors require. Circle registered as a compliant stablecoin issuer under MiCA. Several crypto exchanges applied for EU-wide operating licences.
Data from Chainalysis’s 2024 Global Crypto Adoption Index shows that emerging markets in South and Southeast Asia continue to lead grassroots cryptocurrency adoption, driven by remittance use cases and limited access to traditional banking services.
According to CoinGecko’s 2024 annual crypto report, total cryptocurrency market capitalisation exceeded $3.5 trillion by the end of 2024, reflecting renewed institutional interest following spot ETF approvals in the United States.
The UAE built comprehensive regulatory infrastructure through VARA in Dubai and the Abu Dhabi Global Market’s Financial Services Regulatory Authority. Dubai positioned itself as a crypto hub, attracting companies including Binance (which received a full operational licence), Bybit, and OKX. The UAE’s combination of favourable tax treatment, regulatory clarity, and geographic positioning between Asian and European time zones made it attractive for global crypto operations.
Singapore’s Monetary Authority issued digital payment token licences under its Payment Services Act, establishing the city-state as a regulated crypto hub in Asia. Coinbase, Circle, and Paxos all obtained Singapore licences. Project Guardian, Singapore’s institutional blockchain pilot, attracted JPMorgan, DBS, and SBI as participants.
Hong Kong reversed its 2022 restrictions on retail crypto trading, launching a new licensing regime in 2024 that allows regulated exchanges to serve retail customers. The shift aimed to re-establish Hong Kong as a financial technology centre competing with Singapore for Asian blockchain business.
Exchange and Trading Infrastructure
Cryptocurrency exchanges are the most visible crypto infrastructure, and their global expansion follows regulatory frameworks. Coinbase, the largest US exchange, expanded to 35+ countries. Binance, despite regulatory challenges in the US, operates in over 100 jurisdictions with localised regulatory compliance.
Regional exchanges serve local markets. Upbit dominates South Korea. BitFlyer serves Japan. Luno (owned by Digital Currency Group) serves Africa and Southeast Asia. Each exchange must integrate with local banking systems, comply with local AML regulations, and support local currency fiat on-ramps and off-ramps.
Decentralised exchange infrastructure expands without geographical limits. Uniswap, Jupiter, and dYdX process trades globally because they operate on public blockchains that anyone can access. DEXs handle 15% to 20% of total crypto spot volume. Their infrastructure (liquidity pools, automated market makers, governance contracts) exists on-chain and is accessible from any jurisdiction with internet access.
83% of financial institutions exploring blockchain, per Coinlaw, evaluate both centralised and decentralised exchange infrastructure for liquidity access. Institutional DeFi access points like Aave Arc and Fireblocks’ DeFi connectivity provide compliant pathways to decentralised trading venues.
Custody Infrastructure Expansion
Institutional custody is the infrastructure layer that gates institutional participation. Without regulated custodians, asset managers, pension funds, and banks cannot hold digital assets.
US custody infrastructure is the most mature. BNY Mellon (the world’s largest custodian), Fidelity Digital Assets, Coinbase Custody, and BitGo provide SEC-regulated or state-regulated custody services. These custodians support the spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs that attracted over $50 billion in institutional assets during 2024.
European custody is expanding under MiCA. Banks in Germany (including Deutsche Bank, which applied for a digital asset custody licence) are entering the market. Seba Bank and Sygnum Bank in Switzerland provide full-service digital asset banking including custody, trading, and tokenisation.
Asian custody infrastructure is growing fastest. HashKey in Hong Kong, SBI Digital Asset in Japan, and several Singapore-licensed custodians serve the Asian institutional market. Fireblocks, which provides custody technology to over 1,800 institutions globally, expanded its Asia-Pacific presence throughout 2024.
Middle Eastern custody is nascent but developing. Dubai’s regulatory framework allows licensed custodians to serve regional institutions. Abu Dhabi Global Market hosts several digital asset custodians serving Gulf region clients.
Payment and Settlement Infrastructure
Blockchain-based payment infrastructure is expanding to serve cross-border corridors that traditional systems serve poorly. Blockchain-based cross-border payments handle approximately $3 trillion annually, growing at 45% per year, per Coinlaw.
Stablecoin on-ramp and off-ramp infrastructure determines where blockchain payments can actually be used. An on-ramp converts local currency to stablecoins. An off-ramp converts stablecoins back to local currency. Without both, blockchain payments remain confined to the crypto ecosystem.
MoonPay and Ramp provide global on-ramp infrastructure, supporting fiat-to-crypto conversions in over 160 countries. Local providers serve specific markets: Yellow Card in Africa, Transak in South and Southeast Asia, Latamex in Latin America. Each provider must integrate with local banking systems and payment methods (mobile money in Africa, UPI in India, Pix in Brazil).
Stripe’s acquisition of Bridge for $1.1 billion brought stablecoin infrastructure into the mainstream payments ecosystem. Bridge provides APIs that companies use to accept stablecoin payments and convert to fiat in the recipient’s local currency. This infrastructure makes blockchain payments accessible to businesses that have no blockchain expertise.
Developer and Node Infrastructure
The geographic distribution of blockchain developer and node infrastructure determines where new applications are built and where the network is most resilient.
Node infrastructure is concentrated in North America and Europe. Alchemy (US), Infura (US), and QuickNode (US) provide the majority of blockchain API access globally. Data centres hosting blockchain nodes cluster in the US (Virginia, Oregon), Germany (Frankfurt), and Singapore. Geographic concentration creates latency advantages for users near these clusters but resilience risks from regional outages or regulatory actions.
Developer communities are more distributed. While the US has the largest number of blockchain developers, India, Nigeria, Vietnam, and Brazil have fast-growing developer ecosystems. Ethereum Foundation grants, Solana Foundation hackathons, and Gitcoin’s decentralised grants programme fund developers globally, creating technical capacity in regions that may become future growth markets.
The Blockchain-as-a-Service segment accounts for 51.72% of market revenue, per Fortune Business Insights. BaaS providers are expanding their global footprint. AWS offers blockchain services through data centres on six continents. IBM provides blockchain services through its global consulting network. R3’s Corda Network connects institutions across multiple jurisdictions.
North America holds 43.80% of the global blockchain market, but that share is declining as regulatory frameworks in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East attract investment and companies. The infrastructure expanding globally, from regulated exchanges and licensed custodians to stablecoin on-ramps and developer tools, is building the foundation for a blockchain market that is genuinely global rather than concentrated in a few jurisdictions.
