Regulation & Compliance — Crypto Glossary

Crypto sits at the intersection of securities law, commodities law, payments regulation, and anti-money-laundering rules — with different jurisdictions drawing the lines in different places. These terms cover the US regulatory frameworks (Howey, BSA), the EU's MiCA, the compliance processes (KYC, AML) every major exchange runs, and the government-issued digital currency (CBDC) concept that keeps coming up in policy debates.

AML AML — "Anti-Money Laundering" — is the set of regulations requiring financial institutions to detect, prevent, and report suspicious transactions that could … CBDC A CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) is a digital form of a country's fiat currency issued directly by its central bank. Howey Test The Howey Test is the US Supreme Court's 1946 standard for determining whether an asset is a "security" under the Securities Act. KYC KYC — "Know Your Customer" — is the compliance process by which financial institutions (including crypto exchanges) verify their customers' identities. MiCA MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) is the European Union's comprehensive crypto regulatory framework, fully applicable since December 2024.