Our 2025 Recap: What We Did (Not) See Coming

We are revisiting the major developments of the year 2025 and evaluate our predictions for the year. Tune in for a recap and find out who had the best predictions for 2025.

We discuss with Alexandra Hachmeister, Director General Digital Euro at Deutsche Bundesbank, how Europe can reclaim digital sovereignty and what the role of the Digital Euro could be.

Marcus Mølleskov, CRCO at Januar, reveals how his dual-licensed fintech provides banking infrastructure to crypto SMEs rejected by traditional banks across Europe.

Stablecoins stay in spotlight, tokenized deposits gained momentum, and EU politicians called for a strategic rethink of the digital euro.

Dr. Harald Rauter, Chief Growth Officer at 21energy, and co-host Dr. Michael Blaschke reveal how modular Bitcoin mining provides grid stability, multiple revenue streams, and energy sovereignty.

Jan Lebbe and Floris Lugt share how nine leading European banks are joining forces to launch a regulated Euro stablecoin. They discuss the consortium’s approach to licensing, and cross-border collaboration.

Thomas Cowan, Head of Tokenization at Galaxy, and co-host Michael Blaschke reveal how stablecoin issuers survive institutional scrutiny through four architectural layers from operating model to infrastructure.

Max (CEO) and Victoria (Reg. Affairs Head) of 21X take us on the journey of 21X – the first regulated trading and settlement system (TSS) for tokenized securities in Europe under the DLT Pilot Regime.

October saw key moves in institutional blockchain and geopolitics – from Luxembourg’s BTC investment to Swift’s shared ledger, Europe’s RL1, and China’s stablecoin moves.

SWIAT-CTO Ivica Aračić maps the as-is and to-be architecture of DLT-based financial market infrastructure using the IMF’s ASAP framework—revealing what works, what’s missing, and how Europe moves from pilots to production.