Binance Co-Founder CZ Advocates for Streamlined Crypto Licensing Across ASEAN

CZ’s Vision for Unified ASEAN Crypto Regulation

Binance co-founder Changpeng Zhao has publicly endorsed regulatory passporting across Southeast Asia, proposing a simplified licensing framework that would allow crypto companies already approved in one market to expand to others without restarting the regulatory approval process from scratch. Speaking at the ASEAN Tech Summit Manila 2026, Zhao threw his weight behind the concept advanced by FinTech Alliance PH founding chair Lito Villanueva, framing it as essential to reducing compliance friction and fostering healthy competition.

Under Zhao’s envisioned system, national regulators would retain the ability to review applicants but would spare them the burden of completing an entirely new licensing application. This distinction matters significantly: streamlined reviews could substantially lower compliance costs for businesses while simultaneously expanding competitive options and reducing service costs for consumers accessing digital asset services across the region.

Fragmentation as a Barrier to Growth

ASEAN member states currently maintain separate regulatory regimes for digital assets, forcing any company seeking a regional footprint to navigate multiple approval processes and diverse compliance frameworks. Zhao characterized this coordination gap as fundamentally a political challenge rather than a technical one, implicitly suggesting that political will—rather than infrastructure limitations—presents the main obstacle to alignment.

The region currently lacks a unified passporting system for crypto platforms, unlike more integrated regulatory blocs. This fragmentation compounds inefficiency: companies face duplicated compliance work, timelines extend, and cost pressures eventually flow downstream to consumers in the form of higher fees.

Learning from Existing Frameworks

Precedent for mutual recognition and streamlined approvals already exists within ASEAN’s financial infrastructure. The ASEAN Capital Markets Forum operates the Collective Investment Schemes Framework, which permits investment funds authorized in their home jurisdiction to access participating markets through an expedited authorization process. This framework first launched across Malaysia, Singapore, and Thailand in 2014, later expanding when the Philippines joined in 2021.

Similarly, the ACMF’s Professional Mobility Framework allows investment advisers licensed in one participating jurisdiction to gain fast-track registration in others, bypassing the need for full re-licensing. Though narrower in scope than a comprehensive crypto passporting regime, these initiatives demonstrate that ASEAN regulators have previously embraced mutual recognition principles to deepen financial integration.

The European Union offers an instructive comparison. Its Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation grants authorized crypto-asset service providers passporting rights to serve customers across member states after merely notifying their home regulator of their intended jurisdictions and service offerings.

Zhao’s advocacy underscores growing momentum among industry leaders to address regulatory fragmentation through structural coordination rather than ad-hoc compliance. A successful passporting system could attract more legitimate platforms to Southeast Asia, intensifying competition and ultimately benefiting end users through improved service delivery and pricing. Unified regulatory frameworks across ASEAN could accelerate digital asset adoption throughout the region’s booming digital economy.

Source: Changpeng Zhao, via Cointelegraph. Not financial advice.