On December 29, 2025, DefiLlama data showed real‑world asset protocols overtook decentralized exchanges to become the fifth‑largest DeFi TVL category, behind lending, liquid staking, bridging, and restaking. RWA TVL is about $17 billion, up from $12 billion in Q4 2024, with growth tied to tokenized Treasurys, private credit, and a 2025 rally in gold and silver.

On December 30, BLIFE merged into Portal and consolidated operations under the Portal brand. Benjamin Charbit was appointed CEO, while Animoca Brands led a new funding round and G-20 joined as a strategic partner. The move targets expanded cross-chain support and Bitcoin interoperability for Portal's Web3 gaming ecosystem.

On 29 December 2025, DPRK-linked crypto hacking was described as a major revenue channel for Pyongyang. In the first half of 2025, operators extracted more than $2.17 billion in digital assets, and in February attackers drained nearly $1.5 billion in Ether from Bybit. Experts say evolving multi-chain laundering and broader industry coordination will shape the fight ahead.

South Korea's financial authorities are reviewing an expansion of the crypto Travel Rule to include transfers under ₩1,000,000 (~$680), requiring exchanges to collect sender and recipient details. A Korea FIU-led task force met on November 29 to draft amendments to the Special Act, with proposals including temporary account suspensions and broader AML obligations.

Trust Wallet has launched a formal claims process for users affected by its Chrome extension v2.68 incident that exposed recovery phrases and drained funds. The company confirmed the breach on December 25 and outlined the compensation workflow on December 26. Changpeng Zhao said around $7 million was affected and pledged reimbursement for verified losses.

China’s central bank will permit commercial banks to pay interest on digital yuan balances starting Jan. 1, 2026. The overhaul redesigns the e-CNY as a digital deposit currency with deposit insurance protection and integration into banks’ asset–liability management. Usage has grown, with billions of transactions and hundreds of millions of wallets reported.

A report published on 27 December alleges wallets linked to Andrew Tate received about $1.2 million from addresses named in a Texas lawsuit tied to a $5 million investment scam. Court documents filed in March 2025 describe laundering between January 2023 and February 2025, while related wallets reportedly moved up to $30M into the privacy protocol Railgun over the past two years.

Hacken's 2025 Yearly Security Report estimates Web3 losses at about $3.95 billion, up roughly $1.1 billion from 2024, with North Korea-linked clusters responsible for around half of the stolen funds. The Bybit breach of nearly $1.5 billion and widespread access control failures drove most losses, while regulators in major jurisdictions outlined security expectations that many Web3 firms still failed to implement.