EN | 2025 in Review: Real-World Applications that Defined the Year | MERGE Madrid 2025

Well, so good morning. This is the the opening panel. Um, this is like a very generic topic, right? Like 2025, what has happened this year? What are the use cases that have that h that have saved the year?

Um, so 2025, I would say that it has been like a super important year for us, right? Um, we are in an all-time high of Bitcoin. We have lived a lot of alltime highs during these years. um stable coins have surpass surpassed like the volumes from Visa and Mastercard. Um in the first in the first quarter of the year uh we have been a lot of tokenization projects coming to life like funds um different financial instruments and so on.

So I would like to know your opinion about what's the use case that has saved the year like for you on your on your perspective what has been the most important but first of all because maybe some of the audience don't know what you are doing in the space if you can briefly like introduce yourself and the company that you are representing in this in this round table so they can figure it out what you are doing in the space and after that you will give me that brief about the the critical use case that we have had in in 2025.

Well, before anything, thank you so much Paola for organizing the second edition of MERT. It's been a complete success and well, I want to congratulate you already. So, I I want to ask for an applause for the the group because they are doing a fantastic job.

Thank you, Hayatt.

Well, thank you so much uh to all of you for coming to this morning. So, I am Javier. I work in B2M. B2M is the first and biggest Spanish exchange platform. H we've been operating since 2015 and this year it's been a milestone for us.

It's been a a tipping point because we achieved we obtained the Mika license and this is um of course a a a moment that is going to change our perspective of our future. um making partnerships, making alliances. So well, B2 me is a platform 360° to provide services, products, solutions to buy, sell, custody, Bitcoin and crypto assets in an easy way, but also we work with not only with retail but also with corporates and with institutions. So what we are doing now is integration directly with banks that want to deliver new services and as soon as we got got Mika h well everything open and it's been as I said a milestone for us I don't want to forget either I'm not going to extend a lot about the partnerships that we did all these years and they are joining us in this journey like companies like Telefonica Unikaha the um inverse corp card Cardano Foundation and last but not least Teter that that joined the company a couple of weeks ago and as you know is the biggest issuer of stable coins in the world. So yeah, that's that will be it.

A brief introduction. Thanks. So David,

yeah, I'll try to be briefer. Um, so I'm David. I'm the ecosystem lead at Arbitum Foundation. And Arbitrum is um the leading L2 scaling solution on Ethereum. So it allows thousands of transactions per second in a very fast uh and cheap way while we also maintain the security of Ethereum.

Um so what what stands out of arbitrum is its defi ecosystem meaning that we became the the the leading rollup when it comes to to that uh we have the the leading peris lending protocols stable coins as Paula mentioned um so we are at the top over there um welcome everyone thank you for coming here and also I want to call out Pabola because we've been a sponsor since the first year of merch and it's awesome to see these growing so much.

Thank you. Thank you, Lou. Danny.

Hi. Um I'm Danny. I'm from Block Demon. Block Demon is an infrastructure provider to in institutions entering the crypto space. So MPC wallets.

Um we run nodes. We also uh provide staking and we provide DeFi access. Um from an institutional standpoint, but also do the B2B BTOC element. Um I think one of the things we're really seeing and I think you kind of mentioned it earlier Jav have you was um the integration piece really playing out in 2025 I think ma all the towins we have in the US as well are allowing larger financial institutions to open the gates to what they want to do build out their proof of concept and we kind of enable them to do it um partners and clients such as city JP Morgan Goldman Sachs are all utilizing um block damon in this space to work out how they interact with their clients, how they build out infrastructure to allow their clients to access digital assets.

Fantastic. Haime.

Well, thank you for the invite Paola and thank you everyone for coming. So my name is Haime Demora and I lead the technical unit for startups and unicorns across EMIA inside Microsoft and among many other things we've been mostly working on what we call the digital sorry the trust layer of the intelligent cloud which is a combination of blockchain AI and confidential compute in order to ensure that every transaction um data transaction and agent transaction is done in a verifiable and secure way. We've also been actually partnering with many financial institutions in order to increase the adoption of blockchain technologies and uh providing the infrastructure to many startups and and DeFi companies in order to not only deploy their own um their own blockchain private blockchains but also to advance on the field of uh decentralized identity.

Perfect. So I think that in the introductions you have already been mentioning some of the use cases like crypto, stable coins, infrastructure, uh digital identity, AI. So let's go one by one. I mean the other uh I don't have a preference. Um what do you think in your perspective and in the perspective of of the company that you are representing that has been the most uh important use case that has saved the year in 2025?

Well, I will I think the topic of stable coins is a really hot topic. Um, first because at long last we have a frame in Europe. We have um rules in United States with Genius Act and Mika and it affects a technology that I I I'm sure we share this opinion h is changing or is upgrading what we could do with fiat money. No, you know, stable coins allow 247 transactions for very low fees globally and practically instant. So, Tet started in 2014 with this business model, then Circle up in in 2017 and since then we had two lines of uh developing this business.

Um I have to make an observation about MIGA from this year because as you know a lot of centralized exchange like B to me we have to delist a token like USDT and so on. So I think this is very delicate because when there is a disruptor when there is a new technology that it's allowing people from all over the world to have access from their phone to the reserve currency. We have to study. We have to go of course um with a lot of um precaution about the decisions we take and leave the biggest issuer of stable coins outside Europe. I think has to be review in in the next updates of Mika.

Why? Well, the reason is very clear because if there is demand in other countries, I mean outside Europe, what you are pushing is the citizen from Europe that want to use USDT or other stable coins are going to find ways outside the regulatory frame that you set up within Europe and that's penalizing exchange that are complying and meeting the supervisor and regulator erh uh demands no request. So yeah, that will be my first approach um to a stable coins. I think that that's a fantastic tool and it's linked as well with tokenization. Tokenization is going to go together with stable coins and we have to be more flexible or what the message I will send to the regulators is to be more open to let companies that issue stable coins to stay in Europe.

Um are we going I would like to open a debate on here right because um this could be like a controversial issue for example our bedroom you have been launching uh an stable coin this year in Mexico together h with pizza what do you think of that David I mean we should

what do we do with this unregulated stable coins at least in the ma framework here in Europe

yeah so first of all I agree with stable coins being one of the main use cases of the year. Um we work with many partners in the US uh US-based but also non USD type stable coins. So, as Paula mentioned, um, early this year, we launched, uh, together with, well, Bitsole launched together with us the the MXMB, it's a Mexican peso backed, uh, stable coin. Um, and then, so similarly, I would say put Mexico similarly to to Europe, there's regulation hasn't been has been keeping up and advancing. um we are not at the stage where the stable coins in in both regions can be used um for for for the as many use cases as we wanted them to be.

Um at the same time touching on on Mika a bit um it it's it's been clear that with the USD stable coins uh reaching new highs um MA regulation hasn't been most likely it's a bit restrictive for for the Euro stable coins to to be able to keep up at the same level. So um I would personally expect things to hopefully change for for the region. Um touching on on also like the the stable coin being the use case of the year. Um we we also it's been also the year of like some of these stable coins um like setting ground with different designs like Athena um which was something that users and builders t were scared of uh touching.

Can you explain a little bit David like for the the audience?

Yeah sure. So Athena is an algorith algorithmic stable coin that uses um essentially it goes short on bitcoin and ethereum at the same time it buys an equivalent unity of of the asset so it ma so that it maintains a neutral position but the yield that it collects from that it shares it with its um stable coin holders um actually like we we work and I'll finish with this because I'm taking a bit of time um at arbit We've been working with um like newer stable coin use cases. So there's been this one that I want to point out. Their name is USDA and essentially they are using the collateral that backs the stable coin to lend that money to AI hardware AI infrastructure providers. So that the the actual stable coin is backed by uh like the GPUs and so on that are used to to to run like the the whole like infrastructure setup for AI.

Um I'm just finishing like we've been working with them a lot. They put a lot of effort in the risk in the risk pro framework and so it's um I'm very excited about them. You should check it out.

Um just a quick reminder by the way that I'm seeing that um the the room is getting full. We have live translation. So you have headphones, English to Spanish, Spanish to English during all the day. Uh so Danny, what has been for you like the use case that has saved the year?

I think of course stable coins is one of the big use cases we're seeing at the moment. um to the point of the ability to use it. I think 2023 2024 um one of the biggest blockers we see for a lot of the larger tier one banks, financial institutions was regulation and rightly so Mika has brought this forward. It's opened the gates. It's allowed them to bring their proof of concepts forwards but it doesn't always get things right first off.

Um, so I do think we will see a general change in how Mika approaches stable coins. Um, the ecosystem doesn't want to open up too much. I get why regulation will be where it is right now, but I do think that will progress, especially when we look at the use case of USDT. It's obviously one of the largest stable coins out there. Um, so not having it in Europe at the moment or not being able to list it on a regulated exchange um, can be difficult.

But I do think that will change. I think the other part that we really have seen is just that um integration with trusted partners and a defense first strategy. Um a lot of the larger financial institutions want to come into this space but they also have a lot of um committees they have to go through. They have to get their boards on board. And how do they do that?

They have to prove out that what they're looking to do isn't just viable for their customers. It's also a safe and secure and trusted way to do it as well. So, we're really seeing that element of how do we operate as an ecosystem, trusted players, regulated players to enable them to provide these services to their customers and to large institutions.

Anyone of you like can do you want like to comment something on Danis? I would say something actually like just mentioning that I think it's equally important where um like all these enterprises are choosing to to to launch their stable coins and and here it's it's been a clear winner Ethereum um as the the place where everyone every enterprise wants to launch and so linking to to Arbitum we've it's been a huge um we've been very it's been an advantage for us Right. And so we're getting a lot of um like the the activity that comes from Ethereum and and the stable coin issuers uh through that.

I may so actually building on top of what Danny mentioned uh one thing that we've seen is uh a massive adoption on the enterprise of blockchain technologies uh more than ever. Uh so we've seen a lot of pilot projects actually moving into production and not just for financial specific use cases but actually blockchain as that trusted layer of infrastructure whether that's for supply chain uh traceability whether that's for audit automation uh multiple use cases. Then another thing and maybe that's also where my background comes from is that convergence for the first time of AI with blockchain. So we've seen actually for the first time ever not only AI analyzing at scale blockchain or transactions that happen on the blockchain but eventually as well agents for the first time actually uh operating with wallets performing transactions. And that probably is going to be a trend that we're going to see more and more happening in the following years.

And of course we we need to ensure that those transactions that are being done not by humans but by agents or done in a secure and trusted way. And that's going to be a challenge by itself. Yes, I think so. I mean, what do you think about agents uh having access? I mean, because for example, it's it's said like the the application of agents, for example, to DeFi to try to avoid like the UX problems and so on from the user, but you need to give access to the AI or the AI agent to your private keys or you need at least to authorize some movements.

So how many of you for example in the audience would allow an AI agent to have access to your funds like let's go like that because like on the paper it sounds good but when it comes to the reality I mean how you are facing that from Microsoft what happens if the user I mean the the use case is fantastic but

yeah I think we're moving into a world in which not only individuals but also corporations and agents or need to have their own verifiable decentralized identity in order to perform secure transactions and we have been working with different fintech company fintech companies that actually are performing already transactions through agents even through AI powered applications via voice in which if you think about it the potential risks of doing voice uh bank transactions or morning transaction is huge but of course there are different ways in order to ensure that those happen in a in a secure way um again it all happens It all comes down again to the permissions that you give to those agents and to how do you actually authorize and authenticate those users in a secure way and that's going to be the challenge but also that's going to open multiple opportunities.

Um I'm going to change now the question we have been talking about the use cases that have saved the year. Let's go to the opposite way. what was a use case that it was I don't know like going to change everything like in 2025 and we were thinking that it was going to be massive and it has it has not I mean for example Danny what's your opinion there

yeah I I I think um CBDC's quite frankly um it sounds good in theory um but I I see two large elements as to why it's not played out which is one interoperability and also the ability for enterprise and institutions to understand it but also integrate an on and off ramp to it. I don't think they're ready quite frankly. Um so you can bring in a CBDC. Um however the ecosystem of finance is quite frankly not ready to interact with a CBDC in the way they interact with um the current system. Uh so I think that's for me the the the big one that just hasn't quite played out yet.

Um and we'll see where that goes. I'm unsure whether it will.

Yes, we are having a talk from Bank of Spain talking about digital euro after like in in other states. Um what do you think about tokenization? It was supposed I mean we have been talking about tokenization for years but it seems that it doesn't get like the massive traction. What do you think about that?

Well, we are also in a transition now. uh we build a platform STX in in B2M and we through the pilot regime uh we did a tokenization of bonds 150,000 with 3% yield h we did the settlement deposit and liquidation it will work perfectly all transparent traceable h so I think that's coming as well in the next um couple of weeks months the license the official license and we are talking about a market that now is currently between 15 and 20 trillion that it has the potential to be tokenized. So we are going we are talking about the next level the upgrade of the financial system. Um and I think this is the tool this is the the the way to move um this technology and yeah so I think it's a huge opportunity.

So let's wrap up like the round table one by one. Um let's talk a bit like about the next year. Um what do you think it's going to be like the use case that we need to uh start looking at uh thinking about 2026 for example let's do the opposite way highly.

Okay. uh again because I'm biased but uh what I see is eventually web 3 uh transitioning towards what we call the NL web natural language web which is one in which 90% of the transactions uh and um

that's an operation like for the audience because neither of these uh round people understood that concept

you're going to hear about that more

instead of web three web two web one

you can call it it's going to be web

eventually the the evolution of web 3 is going to be one again just swarmed by agents that are going to be performing around 90% % of of the transactions. So, we're not going to be getting into any websites or any uh or many blockchain uh technologies, but those are going to be just most operations are going to be performed directly by agents. Of course, as mentioned before, that's going to pose a lot of challenges from a security and reliability p uh perspective, eventually from a scalability one as well. Uh but I believe that's going to be the big trend. Uh heading towards an agentic web uh an agentic first um world.

That's that's how I see it.

Denny.

Yeah. I think um next year will be around as I I mentioned earlier the unlock from regulation this year is allowed integration. Next year will be about launch of products, launch of services. Um and again in many different ways but um I think on an enterprise level you will see a lot of announcements from some big financial institutions coming out next year. David

um I think we'll continue seeing new assets um that are yieldbearing and that provide that that value to to the end user and so we will continue seeing new platforms um that allow the users to access those those assets

and you know I have to mention Bitcoin in this conversation as well. So I think next year, well this year already, it's been a a huge movement for treasury companies that are buying massively Bitcoin. There are more than 190. And I think out of 20, the 21st companies, there are only two from Asia and none from Europe in the top 20. And I hope 2026 swap this trend and we become in first positions.

We are going to have panels about all the topics that we have been mentioning here, right? because this is an opening an opening panel very uh high level. So we are going to have um a panel with you regarding Bitcoin treasury management for example. We are going to have regarding stable coins infrastructure. We are going to have about institutional staking what the banks are going to be offering.

Um the next year we are going to have another one about AI and the impact into the blockchain and the financial services. So I think that the wrap up of this uh round table it was like stable coins is the huge topic of the of the year right um it is seen also in in our agenda there are a lot of uh topics regarding stable coins tokenization of course infrastructure we are um developing a lot like the the technology um of course AI and the financial services offering right like the the the banks and how they are facing h all of this So thanks to everyone. Um this is just the opening panel. So I hope that you enjoy all the panels that are coming h into the next two days and hope to see you soon uh today at 12:30 that I have the institutional open. So thank you.

Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you very much. very much.