On December 22, 2025, 18 US House lawmakers pressed the IRS to revisit staking reward taxation, while the Federal Reserve sought public comment on a new limited-use "payment account" with a 45-day window. On December 23, 2025, the SEC charged alleged fake crypto platforms and AI clubs over a $14 million retail fraud, and Arizona lawmakers advanced crypto tax exemption bills.

CoinShares reports that the digital asset market delivered a standout performance in 2025, with Bitcoin setting new all‑time highs and crypto returning to mainstream institutional and media attention. The firm argues that the next phase of the sector will be driven less by price swings and more by real-world utility, adoption and integration into traditional finance, including the growth of spot Bitcoin ETFs, prediction markets, stablecoins and tokenised products. Looking into 2026, CoinShares expects structural changes such as app-based savings and broader stablecoin settlement to matter more than macro catalysts, with regulation seen as a prerequisite for scaling innovation.

Japan's ruling coalition released its 2026 tax reform blueprint on December 19, outlining how crypto assets could be treated within the national tax system. According to CoinPost, the plan considers separate taxation for gains from spot trading, derivatives, and crypto ETFs, and proposes loss carryforward for up to three years. Staking, lending rewards, and NFTs are not explicitly covered.

The crypto derivatives market in 2025 shifted decisively toward institutional participation, with total trading volume around $85.70 trillion and average daily turnover near $264.5 billion. CME Group overtook Binance in Bitcoin futures open interest in 2024 and narrowed the gap in Ethereum derivatives by 2025, while OKX, Bybit and Bitget retained notable market share.

On December 24, 2025, HashKey Capital announced the first close of its HashKey Fintech Multi-Strategy Fund IV, securing $250 million in commitments. The firm is targeting a $500 million final fund size and drew interest from institutional allocators, family offices, and high‑net‑worth investors.

CryptoQuant data shows that decentralized borrowing on Aave has dropped sharply since August 2025, with weekly USDT and USDC loans falling from $6.2 billion to $1.9 billion by late November. At the same time, Nexo's weekly retail credit withdrawals fell from $34 million in mid-July to $8.8 million in mid-November before rebounding to $23 million, suggesting users increasingly prefer borrowing against collateral over selling in a weak market. Overall, CeFi lenders appear to be acting as a liquidity backstop while DeFi leverage contracts.

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.

Xen Baynham-Herd, Head of Global Growth at Base (Coinbase), outlined how the L2 aims to compete through user experience, distribution, and product integration rather than fee cuts. He said success in three to five years means onchain apps feel like everyday mobile software, and noted that over the past 12 months more teams have committed to durable products.

On December 23, 2025, the official Ethereum X account published a guest thread by author and investor William Mougayar asserting that Ethereum operates as a non‑rivalrous, non‑excludable public good. He proposed a three‑part valuation approach—captured value, flow value, and a compounding "trust surplus"—to assess Ethereum’s role beyond fees, throughput, and short‑term metrics.