What happened
Speaking at the Manila 2026 conference on Tuesday, Changpeng Zhao pressed ASEAN policymakers to build a regional crypto license passporting system, per CryptoNews. Under passporting, a firm licensed in one member state could operate across all ten without applying for separate authorisations in each jurisdiction. Zhao framed the pitch around the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation, which took full effect for crypto-asset service providers in December 2024 and lets a firm cleared in, say, France passport into Germany, Ireland and the rest of the bloc.
He argued ASEAN faces the same coordination problem the EU solved and has the same incentive to solve it: keep talent, capital and exchanges inside the region rather than watching them decamp to Dubai or Hong Kong. Zhao appeared in Manila in a private-sector capacity. He stepped down as Binance CEO in November 2023 as part of the exchange's $4.
3 billion settlement with US authorities and is barred from executive roles at the firm.
Why it matters
ASEAN's crypto rulebook is a patchwork. Singapore's MAS runs one of the strictest licensing regimes in Asia under the Payment Services Act. Thailand's SEC licences digital-asset operators separately.
Indonesia moved oversight from Bappebti to the OJK earlier this year. The Philippines runs a virtual-asset service provider regime through the BSP. Vietnam has yet to finalise its framework at all.
For an exchange or stablecoin issuer, that means ten legal opinions, ten compliance teams, ten sets of local partners. A passporting regime would compress that into one gate. It is also a political statement.