Insider trading criminalized for 10 years, the ETF framework is taking shape, and Asia’s compliance race moves into the second half—this looks like the prelude to an institutional bull run.

Japan’s House of Councillors passed a law amendment, first defining cryptocurrencies at the legal level as financial products; introduced insider-trading regulation and granted investigative powers, raising penalties for operating without a license to up to 10 years in prison or 10 million yen; requires mandatory disclosures for issuers of certain assets; tax policy will shift gains from comprehensive taxation to separate taxation (about 20%), and will allow loss offsets of up to 3 years, planned to take effect in 2028; and will establish a regulatory framework to support crypto ETFs.