Ryosuke Ushida

As cryptocurrencies continue to reshape the financial landscape, the rise of decentralized finance and crypto trading platforms has introduced new opportunities and new challenges when it comes to maintaining market integrity. In recent years, the cryptocurrency space has witnessed a surge in trading activity, but with this growth comes the risk of market manipulation, insider trading, pump-and-dump schemes, and other forms of market abuse. These practices can undermine trust in the market.

At this roundtable, we will be exploring the complexities of market abuse in cryptocurrency trading and regulatory frameworks that are evolving to address these challenges.

IOSCO’s 2023 policy recommendations on DeFi emphasise the principle of "same activity, same risk, same regulation" to ensure that DeFi arrangements are held to the same standards as traditional financial systems. Against the backdrop of tightening regulations like MiCA and DORA in Europe and growing geopolitical tensions over digital sovereignty, regulators worldwide grapple with the challenge of applying IOSCO's principle to DeFi. How can innovation thrive while addressing critical issues of security, interoperability, and cross-border compliance?

This roundtable brings together regulators, blockchain architects, and financial innovators to explore the evolving role of DeFi and public blockchain infrastructure in global markets.

Key topics include:

1. Global standards and geopolitics
2. Tech neutrality and security in DeFi
3. DeFi and tokenisation: Reshaping capital markets
4. The future of staking and investor protection

Observers can refer to these pre-reading reference materials to prepare for the roundtable:

• BIS: Cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance: functions and financial stability implications: Cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance: functions and financial stability implications
• IOSCO Final Report on DeFi Policy Recommendations (2023): FR14/23 Final Report with Policy Recommendations for Decentralized Finance (DeFi)
• OECD Report: "Why Decentralised Finance (DeFi) Matters and the Policy Implications:
• Decentralized Finance (DeFi): Reshaping Traditional Banking Systems: 5133479.pdf
• Global Standards Mapping Initiative 5.0: DeFi Stand-Alone Report: DeFi-Stand-Alone.pdf
• Project Guardian – Monetary Authority of Singapore: Project Guardian: 2024 Reflections, 2025 Directions

The proliferation of tokenized financial assets across distinct networks has created significant challenges for both the private and public sectors, including issues of interoperability, scalability, regulatory compliance and security. A base layer foundational digital infrastructure, which facilitates interoperability and supports secure transactions of tokenised assets across such networks, could address these challenges while unlocking new opportunities for economic growth.

Global Layer One (GL1) is a collaborative initiative between the public and private sectors to foster the development of multi-purpose, shared ledger infrastructures, that will facilitate seamless cross-border financial transactions while meeting regulatory expectations. More information about GL1 may be found at

The GL1 Dialogue is a series of in person public-private dialogues to facilitate broader industry engagements around GL1. These dialogues seek to bring together financial institutions and policymakers to discuss and learn about developments in financial and asset tokenisation, and features key milestones and progress under GL1. This roundtable will discuss the regulatory and operational considerations in building an ecosystem of regulatory compliant digital infrastructure for tokenised financial transactions.

As AI agents evolve from automation to decision-making, how will they reshape financial services in 2025? This 2 part session brings together regulators and industry leaders to explore opportunities, risks, and the policy landscape for agentic AI in finance.

Stablecoins are emerging as a serious contender for cross-border transactions, offering faster settlement, lower costs, and reduced reliance on traditional banking rails. Recent developments signal that major payment service providers (PSPs) are beginning to explore stablecoins as part of their core infrastructure, while other incumbents have maintained their commitment to fiat-based transactions.

Herein also lies the question of fungibility. Are all stablecoins truly exchangeable across networks, jurisdictions and use cases, or do regulatory and operational constraints create fragmentation risks? If stablecoins are to become a mainstay in global payments, PSPs must navigate liquidity, compliance and interoperability challenges that could either accelerate adoption or hinder scalability.

Discussion themes:

1. The growing role of stablecoins in cross-border payments - Are lower costs, instant settlement, and financial inclusion advantages enough to drive broader PSP adoption?
2. Strategic moves in the payments industry – What does the acquisition of a stablecoin platform signal about the future of PSP-stablecoin integration, and will it force competitors to reconsider their stance on stablecoins?
3. The fungibility challenge - How do differences in issuance models, reserve structures, and regulatory classifications affect stablecoins' usability across different payment rails and jurisdictions?
4. Regulatory and market barriers – What are key regulatory, liquidity, and operational challenges preventing PSPs from fully embedding stablecoin-powered payments into their infrastructure? What's needed to bridge the gap between stablecoins and traditional finance?

This session is held in collaboration with the Ripple Policy Summit.