The global crypto market has broken from a single sector into an industry running on a patchwork of regional regulatory systems, according to Petr Sergeev, the chief executive of Estonian crypto-fiat gateway Guardarian.
Sergeev made the observation during a Cryptopolitan interview, where the executive also noted that compliance work never stops, even after clearing the initial regulatory bar for approvals such as Europe’s MiCA regime.
Despite the headaches from the regulatory patchwork, Sergeev said that Guardarian is already eyeing expansion into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the United States. The push into new markets is also expected to continue into 2027, with Asia already lined up for the year.
Crypto firms have to rebuild around different local rules
Sergeev told Cryptopolitan that a crypto company “cannot take the same business model that works in one jurisdiction and assume it would immediately apply everywhere else.”
Sergeev contrasted the US, where New York has its own BitLicense and California has the Digital Financial Assets Law, against Europe, which applies a unified Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) framework throughout the continent.
All the regulatory compliance hurdles add up to firms being forced out or voluntarily winding down their services in certain regions. TRM Labs estimated that only 281 of the 1,343 firms it monitors were authorized to continue operating across the European Economic Area around the time the MiCA transition period closed on July 1, 2026.
CASP Tracker, which mirrors the official ESMA register, recorded only 16 of the world’s 100 largest exchanges as holding a MiCA license.
Sergeev: Getting a license is only the beginning of compliance work
The Guardarian CEO pointed out that getting a regulator to sign off on a crypto firm’s business is only one chapter in the book. Actually operating the business is work in itself.
“Having a license doesn’t necessarily guarantee a smooth sailing there,” Sergeev said of banking relationships. He explained that institutions want visibility into customer bases, fund flows and how suspicious transactions are handled.
Sergeev noted that strong compliance is a requirement to operate at scale because it clears “one of the biggest obstructions to work with other institutions.”
Is Guardarian authorized in India?
Last month, the Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND) issued non-compliance notices to Guardarian and 14 other offshore virtual digital asset providers under Section 13 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. The regulator followed up the notice with moves to take down the platforms’ apps and URLs in the country.
Sergeev said Guardarian has since updated its terms of service and added geo-fencing and customer restrictions. The company is now waiting for feedback to inform its next steps after filing a report with FIU-IND.
Sergeev pointed to that episode as proof that approval in one country does not carry over across borders.
“Being licensed in one main operating market doesn’t necessarily mean that you meet the cross-border expectations of another region.”
Even then, Sergeev believes firms that want to expand globally need to rise to meet the infrastructural challenge their ambitions demand.
Advice for founders pursuing global scale
Sergeev warned founders looking to start a crypto company in 2026 not to fall for the common mistake of picking a jurisdiction that “looks good on paper” to avoid future issues with hiring, banking and payment rails, investor deals and even local marketing.
Guardarian, founded in 2017, serves roughly 300,000 users and runs with about 25 staff, according to a case study published by verification provider Sumsub.