DTCC said it has partnered with Digital Asset and the Canton Network to enable the tokenization of a subset of US Treasury securities custodied at its Depository Trust Company, following recent SEC no-action relief. The project targets a limited production rollout in the first half of 2026, aiming to improve liquidity, operational efficiency and capital usage while maintaining regulated market safeguards.

UniCredit has issued its first tokenized structured note aimed at professional wealth management clients. The process, which involved BlockInvest and Weltix, allowed UniCredit to complete a fully digital issuance, reducing issuance costs by minimizing manual processing and eliminating the need for custodians.

JPMorgan Asset Management's first tokenized fund, MONY, allows institutional clients to use USD Coin for subscriptions and redemptions. JPMorgan converts the stablecoin to cash for underlying investments, keeping investors' funds on-chain while maintaining traditional operations.

Tokenized US Treasurys have seen a 50-fold increase in market capitalization in less than two years, driven by institutional demand for on-chain yield, according to Token Terminal. BlackRock's USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund has led the surge, amassing nearly $2 billion in assets under management. Other notable products include USD Coin Yield from Circle and US Treasury Bill Token from Superstate.

2025 was a breakout year for tokenized real-world assets, with on-chain RWA value growing from $5.6 billion to $16.7 billion year-to-date. US Treasuries remain the dominant institutional RWA category -- led by products like BlackRock's BUIDL -- and tokenized credit, commodities and institutional funds are accelerating adoption as infrastructure and interoperability improve.

The blockchain industry in 2025 saw significant institutional adoption and regulatory clarity, but stagnant price performance for Layer 1 tokens. Despite underperformance in ecosystem tokens, network fundamentals such as total value locked and daily activity showed growth.

House lawmakers Reps. Max Miller, R-Ohio, and Steven Horsford, D-Nev., have proposed a tax framework for cryptocurrency, including a safe harbor for stablecoin transactions and a delay in taxation of staking rewards. The proposal would exempt regulated stablecoin transactions from capital gains tax and allow taxpayers to defer tax on staking rewards for a period of five years.

The Securities and Exchange Commission Division of Trading and Markets has provided guidance on how Rule 15c3-3 applies to broker-dealers handling crypto asset securities, clarifying that the statement addresses only the physical possession requirements under paragraph (b)(1). This guidance responds to industry requests for clarity on custody obligations and outlines when physical possession by broker-dealers will be recognized as compliant under existing federal rules, without imposing new legal obligations or modifying current law.

Hong Kong has finalized Basel Committee for Banking Supervision rules for banks, becoming one of the few major jurisdictions to do so by the January 2026 deadline. The rules, which manage capital requirements and credit risks for cryptoassets, are more favorable toward certain stablecoins and permissionless blockchains than the Basel Committee's recent stance.

The European Council has released a 157-page paper outlining its stance on digital euro legislation, rejecting a proposal for an offline-only digital euro and insisting on both online and offline capabilities. The European Central Bank aims to launch the digital euro by 2029, primarily for peer-to-peer and retail payments, to reduce reliance on Visa and Mastercard. The council's vision includes broader applications such as machine-to-machine payments and business-to-business transactions, potentially overlapping with private sector projects like Germany's Commercial Bank Money Token.

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