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In August 2025, Ethereum (ETH) exceeded its 2021 peak, touching $4,945 and a $600 billion market capitalization. Institutional flows dominate this cycle: reserves on centralized exchanges fell to 10.5% by December 21, more than 35.6 million ETH are staked, and Exchange Traded Products attracted about $12.7 billion in 2025.

Alfa-Bank launched a fuel-linked digital financial asset, with purchases open from December 23 to 26 in Moscow and the Moscow Region. The token's nominal value is 6,650 rubles and offers a 20% fixed annual yield, maturing between March 1 and 15 next year with a choice of cash plus interest or a 100-liter fuel voucher.

On December 24, 2025, Circle announced a digital metals expansion that lets customers swap USDC for tokenized gold (GLDC) and silver (SILC) at live market prices. The service cites COMEX-linked liquidity, on-chain settlement, and 24/7 availability, aiming to integrate precious metal exposure into public blockchains for institutional and developer use.

Ondo Finance plans to expand its Global Markets product to Solana in early 2026, offering tokenized US stocks and ETFs that are backed by securities held with US-registered broker-dealers. The structure is designed so that holders receive economic exposure, including dividend effects, while compliance is enforced via Solana Token Extensions such as Transfer Hooks. Minting and redemption are expected to run 24 hours a day, five days a week, with transfers and trading available around the clock on Solana.

XRP, the fifth largest crypto asset by market capitalization, has slipped below $2 during a broader correction, yet analyst Sam Daodu argues five key drivers could push it to $5 by 2026. His outlook hinges on strong spot XRP ETF inflows, expanding use of Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin in Japan, growing tokenization on the XRP Ledger, supportive Federal Reserve rate policy, and reduced exchange balances. XRP recently traded near $1.88, almost 50% under its July all‑time high.

BlackRock is expanding its digital assets team with new roles in New York, London and Singapore. According to job listings, openings span associate to managing director, including a New York MD role paying $270,000 to $350,000 and an APAC MD in Singapore. The push covers tokenization, stablecoins, market structure, fund services and compliance.

Alex Davis, CEO of Mavryk, argues that tokenizing real-world assets marks an inevitable next phase for global capital markets and is no longer a speculative idea. Drawing on his prior work at Tezos and in DeFi, he explains how Mavryk is building a dedicated tokenization network and the Maven platform to connect assets, lending and data in one ecosystem. Davis expects institutional and retail access to expand rapidly by 2026 as regulation, infrastructure and macroeconomic pressures converge.

Amplify ETFs announced on Tuesday that it has rolled out two new crypto-focused exchange-traded funds, the Amplify Stablecoin Technology ETF (STBQ) and the Amplify Tokenization Technology ETF (TKNQ). STBQ tracks the MarketVector Stablecoin Technology Index, while TKNQ follows the MarketVector Tokenization Technology Index, with each fund allocating 25% to 50% of its portfolio to qualifying crypto-related assets at rebalancing.

By late 2025, major financial institutions were using Ethereum to support tokenized dollars, T+0 settlement and onchain fund administration, often without naming the network. The period included quarterly throughput above $5 trillion, a stablecoin market cap at $300 billion after July 2025 legislation, and JPMorgan’s MONY money market fund going live on Ethereum in December 2025.

In a December 23, 2025 press release from Johannesburg, VALR said it secured an FSCA Over‑the‑Counter Derivatives Provider licence and grew to over 1.7 million registered users. The company added 100+ tradable coins, enabled payments at 31,000 stores and 700,000 locations, listed USDPC and xStocks, and reported over $1 million in user rewards during 2025.