What is crypto license passporting?

A regulatory arrangement under which a firm licensed in one jurisdiction can offer services across all member states of a bloc without applying separately in each. The EU introduced it for crypto-asset service providers under MiCA in 2024.

Which ASEAN countries currently regulate crypto?

Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia all have active licensing regimes. Vietnam is still finalising its framework. Frameworks and enforcement priorities vary widely.

Is MiCA a good template for ASEAN?

MiCA gives the EU a single passporting regime, but it took years of negotiation and only works because member states already share deep financial-services integration. ASEAN has no equivalent baseline, which is why analysts are skeptical the model transplants cleanly.

CZ Pitches ASEAN Crypto License Passport at Manila 2026, Citing MiCA as Blueprint

Q: Does CZ still run Binance?

No. Changpeng Zhao resigned as CEO in November 2023 as part of a $4.3 billion settlement with US authorities and is barred from executive roles at the exchange. He continues to speak publicly on industry policy.

Changpeng Zhao, the Binance founder known across the industry as CZ, called on ASEAN member states to adopt a regional crypto license passporting regime at the Manila 2026 summit on Tuesday, arguing the bloc should mirror the European Union's MiCA framework to slash duplicative compliance costs across ten jurisdictions. The pitch, delivered in the Philippine capital and first detailed by CryptoNews, casts Southeast Asia as the next frontier for coordinated digital-asset rules and lands as regional regulators from Singapore to Jakarta wrestle with fragmented licensing regimes.

By Elena Stojanović· AI-assisted· Regulation correspondent

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.

CZ Pitches ASEAN Crypto License Passport at Manila 2026, Citing MiCA as Blueprint

What happened

Why it matters

Market impact

What to watch

Disclaimer

Key takeaways

Frequently asked

Sources