The global crypto industry no longer operates as a single sector but as a patchwork of regional regulatory systems, according to Petr Sergeev, chief executive of Estonian crypto-fiat gateway Guardarian. That split now shapes which services reach users in a given country, which firms can operate there, and how any company with cross-border ambitions has to plan its growth.

Speaking in a Cryptopolitan interview, Sergeev noted that compliance work never stops, even after a firm clears the initial regulatory bar for approvals such as Europe's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA). Despite the friction created by divergent national rulebooks, he said Guardarian is already eyeing expansion into the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and the United States, with the global push expected to continue into 2027, when Asia is already lined up. Each new market will bring its own entry bar — and its own test of the compliance-first approach he describes.

Crypto firms must rebuild around 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."

He contrasted the United States, where New York maintains its own BitLicense and California enforces the Digital Financial Assets Law, against Europe, which applies a unified MiCA framework across the continent. As he framed it, that means building compliance around each market's rules rather than running one global playbook.

The accumulated compliance hurdles have forced firms out of certain regions or led them to wind down services voluntarily. TRM Labs estimated that only 281 of the 1,343 companies 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 just 16 of the world's 100 largest exchanges as holding a MiCA license. Together, the figures show how sharply authorization requirements have narrowed the pool of providers still operating in the bloc.

Getting a license is only the beginning

The Guardarian CEO pointed out that getting a regulator to sign off on a crypto firm's business is only one chapter of the process — 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. In his telling, that visibility is what determines whether a license translates into working relationships with banks and payment partners.

Strong compliance, he argued, is a requirement to operate at scale because it clears "one of the biggest obstructions to work with other institutions."

India notice tests cross-border assumptions

In September 2026, 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 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 has filed a report with FIU-IND and is now waiting for feedback to inform its next steps, with the regulator's response set to shape what the platform can offer Indian users.

He pointed to the 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," he said. Even so, he believes firms that want to expand globally need to rise to 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," a choice that can create 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. Those numbers put the expansion plan in perspective: a compact team preparing to meet market-by-market requirements across MENA, the United States and, from 2027, Asia.