Close out 2025 with BFRR’s final news episode of the year—a fast-paced, institution-focused tour through what might be the most consequential month yet for blockchain in finance. Host Michael Blaschke is joined by Ivica Aračić and Atakan Kavukluto to unpack December’s biggest developments across markets, regulation, stablecoins, and tokenization—and to zoom out on what 2025 really meant for institutional adoption.

We start with a market pulse (recorded on December 22): crypto closes the year strong, with the total market rebounding to roughly $3.8T, Bitcoin hovering around $90k, and stablecoins hitting new scale—with Tether and Circle together surpassing $260B. But the real story isn’t price. It’s infrastructure.

Ivica breaks down major European policy momentum, including updates to the EU’s DLT Pilot Regime aimed at expanding eligible instruments, raising caps, reducing friction for smaller participants, and strengthening long-term certainty. The episode also tackles the digital euro’s political reality: the ECB pushes for legislative progress, while coordination challenges across parliaments, banks, and incentives remain the hard part.

Michael then dives into the “stablecoin year” thesis: regulated clarity meets real-world rollout. From SoFi USD as a bank-issued stablecoin in the US, to a major European bank consortium targeting a EUR stablecoin, to payment giants integrating stablecoins at scale—PayPal’s PYUSD moving into AI infrastructure financing, YouTube enabling creator payouts in PYUSD, Intuit embedding USDC across finance workflows, and Visa expanding USDC settlement (including on Solana).

Atakan rounds out the month with tokenization and TradFi integration: landmark pilots like JP Morgan arranging commercial paper on Solana, tokenized money market funds (JP Morgan and Amundi on Ethereum), and the early hints of tokenized equities distribution via crypto platforms and messaging-first experiences.

The episode ends with a sharp 2025 wrap: stablecoins as the bridge between old rails and new networks, regulatory maturation finally arriving, and a growing tilt toward public blockchain infrastructure—plus reading recommendations (BIS Project Rialto, an IMF stablecoin primer, and Christian Catalini on the “trillion-dollar battle” for money’s operating system).

BFRR Episode #290 on "Das sind die Alternativen zum digitalen Euro" with Peter Bofinger

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