By 2026, the global regulatory framework is becoming increasingly完善, and the crypto industry is undergoing a profound reshuffle. Projects that are unprepared for compliance face narrowing survival space, while those that have laid out early are becoming the winners.

An interesting phenomenon is that some projects treat compliance as a core competitive advantage. Take the Walrus project as an example. They have built-in an intelligent audit engine that automatically performs compliance checks based on a global regulatory rule database. For instance, when dealing with the EU market, the system will mandatorily require the generation of an environmental impact assessment report; for the US market, it automatically generates risk warning documents that comply with Rule 10b-5. Delegating these routine tasks to machines can significantly reduce human error.

What’s more innovative is their use of zk-SNARKs technology for zero-knowledge KYC verification—meeting regulatory requirements without compromising user privacy. This "compliance without leakage" balance is especially attractive to institutional users.

In terms of actual results, Walrus’s regulatory sandbox model issues temporary exemptions to users in specific regions via dynamic NFTs, effectively addressing regulatory differences across jurisdictions. Data from Q3 last year shows that this system has helped three issuers complete cross-border RWA financing, demonstrating a clear path to commercialization.

The most noteworthy change is in the structure of ecosystem participants. With the official implementation of the US GENIUS Act and the European MiCA framework, institutional users are increasingly involved in such projects, with over 30 small and medium-sized investment institutions now part of the ecosystem. What does this number signify? It indicates that professional institutions are starting to vote with their feet—they prefer to allocate assets to projects that take compliance seriously.

For participants, choosing such projects is not just about asset allocation but also about practically avoiding regulatory risks. Compliance itself is a "safe harbor" under the new circumstances.