Madrid, 16 October 2025
The International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO) published today its Final Report (“Report”) on its Thematic Review Assessing the Implementation of IOSCO Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset (CDA) Markets.
In recognition of the rapid development and growth of crypto-asset markets, IOSCO and other relevant bodies, including the Financial Stability Board (FSB), have developed comprehensive policy frameworks for the regulation and oversight of crypto-assets and global stablecoins. To encourage full and consistent implementation of these frameworks across jurisdictions, IOSCO and FSB each undertook distinct but complementary thematic implementation reviews, both published today with an accompanying joint note.
The IOSCO Review was conducted jointly by its Fintech Task Force and Assessment Committee. With a focus on investor protection and market integrity, the Review examined how twenty jurisdictions, from both advanced and emerging economies, have implemented a set of IOSCO’s 2023 Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets. The assessed recommendations cover matters related to governance, conflicts of interest, fraud and market abuse, cross-border cooperation, custody, retail client protections, and disclosures. The Review highlights both the progress made in regulating crypto-asset markets and the key areas for continued progress, such as promoting greater consistency in implementation, reducing risks of regulatory arbitrage, and strengthening enforcement practices.
The Review notes that the fast-evolving crypto-asset ecosystem still harbors risks related to investor protection and market integrity. The Review is a call for action for jurisdictions to take steps to monitor the existing and emerging risks and seek to fully implement the CDA Policy Recommendations, as early as possible. To this end, IOSCO will look to enhance its capacity building program, with the goal of facilitating knowledge sharing and assisting jurisdictions in their implementation efforts.
As jurisdictions are still developing and implementing their regulatory frameworks for cross-border cooperation, the use of existing mechanisms for sharing information across borders remains relatively limited. With most major crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) having a global footprint, there is an increasing need for closer international cooperation. The Review recommends IOSCO to monitor developments and consider enhancements to promote information sharing, including improved cooperation mechanisms beyond enforcement.
“In view of the fast-evolving crypto-asset ecosystem, this assessment report is an important milestone in encouraging jurisdictions to ensure that their legal and regulatory frameworks sufficiently address the investor protection and market integrity challenges posed by these markets. The complementarity between IOSCO and FSB reports, published on the same day, is material in analyzing the implementation progress. The IOSCO report demonstrates global standard setters’ ability to provide principle-based solutions to these global challenges.”
Jean-Paul Servais, IOSCO Board Chair
“Cross-border cooperation emerges as a critical common area of focus both in IOSCO and FSB reports. Enhanced international cooperation is essential to address regulatory arbitrage and ensure consistent and coherent oversight. Our report underscored the need for proactive information sharing across the regulatory lifecycle, including during authorization, supervision, and enforcement stages.”
Matthew Long, Director, Payments & Digital Assets, UK Financial Conduct Authority, Review co-chair
“While progress has been made in many jurisdictions, crypto-assets are increasing their footprint across the world. Our Report therefore notes that more is to be done, especially as new crypto-asset business models are being developed, existing risks are changing, and various new risks are emerging. The Report is an initial assessment conducted under IOSCO’s Crypto-Asset Implementation Roadmap and will inform the development of an assessment methodology for future IOSCO reviews.”
Laurent van Burik, Head of Unit CSSF Luxembourg, Review co-chair
