Antitrust and Financial Regulation in the Decentralized Economy
Summary
The application of competition law (antitrust) in the decentralized economy presents unique challenges, and financial regulation is also struggling to catch up with DeFi.
In this theme, we analyse how the laws and principles of antitrust law and financial regulation apply in DeFi markets and we monitor legislative developments in this space. Through scholarship and responses to public consultations, we try to apply the law and to identify gaps for future regulation.
Our inaugural event in October 2024 highlighted many of those aspects, and we have identified areas for future research in the relevant report.
Outputs:
CREATe blog post, New training programme with Hong Kong Competition Commission on antitrust in stablecoin and crypto markets (2026)
Li, Zihao, Xu, Hao, Fang, Yang, Zhao, Boyuan and Zhang, Lei (2026) The implication of DLT and blockchain: legal and financial aspects. In: Chen, Cathy Yi-Hsuan, Härdle, Wolfgang Karl and Lu, Henry Horng-Shing (eds.) Handbook of Blockchain Analytics. Springer Cham, pp. 191-209. ISBN 9783031954177 (doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-95418-4_10)
Konstantinos Stylianou, Antitrust in the Decentralized Economy: DeFi, Central Bank Digital Currencies, and Blockchain (OUP 2025)
Konstantinos Stylianou and Zihao Li, The Decentralized and Automated Economy: A research roadmap for the medium-term future (CREATe Working Paper Series 2025)
Alessio Azzutti and Konstantinos Stylianou, Response to the FCA Discussion Paper on Regulating Cryptoassets: Admission & Disclosures and Market Abuse Regime for Cryptoassets (DP24/04) (SSRN 2025)
Konstantinos Stylianou et al., Fintech Competition: Law, Policy, and Market Organisation (Bloomsbury-Hart 2023)