“Digital assets” is a term used by some jurisdictions, such as the United States of America, as defined in the S.394 -The Genius Act of 2025. Further, a newly formed Congressional Subcommittee (the Subcommittee on Digital Assets) was established to create legislation to provide guidance to the industry on how it should operate. Also, El Salvador has approved the Digital Assets Issuance Law using this term.
Some other terms have been incorporated as an equivalent to digital assets, such as “virtual assets”, first introduced by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF). Additionally, this term is used in recently-approved regulation in Argentina as well as in an draft bill in Colombia. Moreover, other terms such as crypto assets have also been developed by the Market in Crypto Assets (MiCA) regulation from the European Union. The word “crypto” has also been used to refer to all of the above terms.
In 2025, the cryptocurrency market size is 47.73 billion USD with an estimated growth to 69.39 billion USD by 2030. So Bitcoin, altcoins, memecoins, and new tokens issuance will likely grow in the coming years. In this matter, it becomes crucial to define a legal framework that can bring clarity to investors for making informed decisions about digital assets.
This document will discuss the $LIBRA case, some lessons learnt, as well as provide an analysis of different legal frameworks and the identification of red flags for preventing financial crimes, such as scams in the issuance of new tokens. Finally, some recommendations for countering illicit financial flows in the sector will be provided.