The five key directions of crypto – what journey is your jurisdiction on?
15/09/2025
The world of cryptocurrency is evolving rapidly, reshaping finance, technology, and global economies.
As jurisdictions worldwide grapple with its implications, crypto’s growth can be charted across five key directions:
- Retail & Payments,
- Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs),
- Institutional Finance & Trade,
- Speculation & Investment, and
- Decentralised Finance (DeFi).
Each path offers unique opportunities and challenges, from enabling seamless everyday transactions to revolutionising institutional systems. In this blog, we explore these dynamic trajectories, highlighting their use cases, examples, and implications.
Where is your jurisdiction headed on this transformative crypto journey?
The key directions crypto is evolving into can be broadly categorised as follows:
- Retail & Payments (Stablecoins)
- Use case: Everyday transactions, remittances, e-commerce, and financial inclusion.
- Examples: USDC, PayPal USD, Visa’s stablecoin settlement.
- Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs)
- Use case: Sovereign digital money issued by central banks.
- Purpose: Enhance monetary policy transmission, reduce reliance on cash, improve cross-border payments.
- Examples: China’s e-CNY, ECB’s digital euro, Bahamas’ Sand Dollar.
- Institutional Finance & Trade (Tokenization & Smart Contracts)
- Use case: Tokenised securities, trade finance, settlement layers, and programmable money.
- Purpose: Improve efficiency, transparency, and reduce counterparty risk.
- Examples: JPMorgan’s Onyx, Paxos settlement for commodities, blockchain-based letters of credit.
- Speculation & Investment (Crypto Assets)
- Use case: Trading, investing, hedging, and portfolio diversification.
- Assets: Bitcoin, Ethereum, altcoins, NFTs.
- Risks: Volatility, regulatory uncertainty, market manipulation.
- Decentralised Finance (DeFi)
- Use case: Lending, borrowing, derivatives, and decentralised exchanges.
- Purpose: Disintermediate traditional financial institutions.
- Examples: Uniswap, Aave, MakerDAO.
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As well as owning and publishing Comsure's copyrighted works, Comsure wishes to use the copyright-protected works of others. To do so, Comsure is applying for exemptions in the UK copyright law. There are certain very specific situations where Comsure is permitted to do so without seeking permission from the owner. These exemptions are in the copyright sections of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 (as amended)[www.gov.UK/government/publications/copyright-acts-and-related-laws]. Many situations allow for Comsure to apply for exemptions. These include 1] Non-commercial research and private study, 2] Criticism, review and reporting of current events, 3] the copying of works in any medium as long as the use is to illustrate a point. 4] no posting is for commercial purposes [payment]. (for a full list of exemptions, please read here www.gov.uk/guidance/exceptions-to-copyright]. Concerning the exceptions, Comsure will acknowledge the work of the source author by providing a link to the source material. Comsure claims no ownership of non-Comsure content. The non-Comsure articles posted on the Comsure website are deemed important, relevant, and newsworthy to a Comsure audience (e.g. regulated financial services and professional firms [DNFSBs]). Comsure does not wish to take any credit for the publication, and the publication can be read in full in its original form if you click the articles link that always accompanies the news item. Also, Comsure does not seek any payment for highlighting these important articles. If you want any article removed, Comsure will automatically do so on a reasonable request if you email info@comsuregroup.com.