In a statement on December 19, 2025, European Central Bank executive board member Piero Cipollone said the ECB will enable distributed ledger technology transactions to settle in central bank money starting in 2026. The central bank has largely completed technical work on a potential digital euro and moved into a readiness phase, while political debate intensifies over privacy safeguards and legislative approval. Lawmakers in the EU are now negotiating the legal framework amid concerns that wider anti-money laundering and data retention rules could challenge promised privacy protections.

Coinbase, in a 2026 outlook released this week, said a provision of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act signed in July 2025 will limit deductions for gambling losses starting in 2026. The exchange argued prediction markets could be a more tax‑advantageous alternative, and it has partnered with Kalshi while suing Michigan, Illinois, and Connecticut over CFTC jurisdiction.

On December 19, 2025, SWIFT detailed progress on integrating a blockchain-based ledger into its global payment network. The effort involves collaboration with more than 30 banks and aims to enable real-time, 24/7 cross-border payments with transaction validation and smart-contract features for tokenized assets. Thierry Chilosi cited prototype work with Consensys and consultations on settlement models.

On Friday, December 19, Moca Network launched MocaPortfolio, a platform granting its community access to token allocations from projects in the Animoca Brands ecosystem. The first live allocation features Magic Eden's ME token, with 2,195,000 ME available to eligible MOCA stakers. MocaPortfolio has set aside $20 million worth of tokens from Animoca Brands portfolio projects, with further token offerings planned over time.

Malaysia's RMJDT, a ringgit-pegged "royal" stablecoin on the Zetrix blockchain, is positioned for payments and cross-border trade settlement and backed by ringgit cash and short-term government bonds. The project includes a 500 million Malaysian ringgit Zetrix-token treasury with plans to reach 1 billion ringgit to stabilize network costs and validator support, reflecting a broader Asian push toward licensed stablecoin issuance and regulated onchain settlement in local currencies.

EchoSync has introduced a copy trading dashboard on decentralized perpetual exchange Aster, linked to its Human vs AI trading competition running from December 9 to 23, 2025. Human traders currently lead the rankings with higher realized profits but larger drawdowns, while AI models show smaller losses and more consistent capital preservation. Aster has set a $200,000 prize pool with conditions favoring human winners and is adding USD1 trading pairs as its ASTER token trades 71% below its September peak.

On December 19, 2025, credit reporting firm 700Credit disclosed a data breach that may have exposed personal information belonging to 5,836,521 individuals in the United States. The company reported that names, Social Security numbers, financial account details and other sensitive data could be compromised following unauthorized access to its systems. Affected consumers are being urged to monitor their credit activity and consider fraud alerts or credit freezes while regulators continue to investigate the incident.

According to new modeling by RWA.io, fragmentation across blockchain networks is imposing an economic drag of up to $1.3 billion per year on tokenized real-world assets as crosschain price gaps and capital friction persist. The report cites typical 1%–3% price spreads for equivalent tokens on different chains and average losses of about 3.5% per capital reallocation, warning that at a projected $16 trillion–$30 trillion RWA market by 2030, annual efficiency losses could reach $30 billion–$75 billion.