Governments cannot change Bitcoin's rules, but they regulate everything around it: exchanges, taxes, businesses, mining and what banks may do. Their answers range from embrace to prohibition.
- El Salvador made bitcoin legal tender in September 2021, the first country to do so, and later made accepting it voluntary.
- China banned bitcoin mining and trading in 2021; much of the hashrate moved to other countries within months.
- The European Union's MiCA framework set common rules for crypto service providers, applying from the end of 2024.
- In 2025, the United States announced a strategic bitcoin reserve built from coins it had seized.
What regulation can and cannot reach
Rules bind the on and off ramps: the companies where bitcoin meets bank accounts. They cannot freeze coins held in self custody, stop a node or reverse a confirmed transaction. That is why exchanges are where regulation concentrates, and why self custody matters to people living under unstable or hostile regimes.