Blockchain is becoming infrastructure. Prices have been weak since a crypto downturn began in October 2025, yet stablecoins, tokenized assets and Ethereum’s next upgrade keep advancing, while US market-structure legislation has stalled and quantum computing has become a planning deadline. According to MarketsandMarkerts the blockchain market size is projected to reach USD 610.96 billion by 2031.
Crypto prices have been weak since the downturn that began in October 2025, but the technology underneath has kept moving. Stablecoins, tokenised assets and Ethereum’s next major upgrade are all advancing. The odd detail is that progress is coming fastest where prices matter least. While traders watch Bitcoin, which held up better than AI stocks in last week’s sell-off, payment companies and banks are quietly building on the rails.
For European businesses, this is the shift that matters. Blockchain is moving from speculation to plumbing: a way to settle payments, move money across borders and hold assets more cheaply. That brings real opportunities for banks and fintechs, but also new risks, from regulation to a threat few boards have planned for: quantum computing.
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SubscribeStablecoins Take Over
Stablecoins are digital tokens pegged to a currency, usually the dollar. They now make up about 86% of the roughly $346bn in tokenised assets, according to Token Terminal. They are becoming the main way money moves on blockchains.
Regulation is catching up, slowly. America’s GENIUS Act, signed in July 2025, sets rules on reserves, redemption and licensing for stablecoin issuers. But US agencies missed their 18 July 2026 deadline to finalise the details, and the law now takes effect no later than 18 January 2027.
Big payment firms are not waiting. Tempo, a payments blockchain built by Stripe and Paradigm, launched in March. It lets users pay transaction fees in stablecoins, and Visa is among its first validators, the companies that confirm transactions. For challengers like Revolut, and for Europe’s traditional banks, that is a direct threat to the fees they earn on cross-border payments.
Tokenisation: Promising but Small
Tokenisation means putting traditional assets, such as bonds, funds or property, on a blockchain so they can be traded and settled instantly. Excluding stablecoins, tokenised assets total roughly $40bn to $48bn, depending on which tracker you use.
Only one category is seen as ready for serious use: tokenised US Treasuries, worth close to $15bn. That makes sense. With Treasury yields above 5%, investors want a safe, income-paying asset they can move around the clock. Tokenised property, by contrast, remains tiny, and only about 3% of the core market is open to ordinary US investors.
Ethereum’s Next Upgrade
Ethereum, the blockchain behind most stablecoins and tokenised assets, is preparing its next major upgrade, Glamsterdam. It reached the Sepolia test network on 6 October, and the main network launch is targeted for the fourth quarter, though there is no firm date and the schedule has already slipped more than once.
It brings two big changes. The first, EIP-7732, moves the job of building blocks out of the hands of trusted middlemen and into the network’s own rules. The second, EIP-7928, lets the network process transactions in parallel rather than one at a time, which should make it faster and cheaper. A further upgrade, Hegotá, is planned for 2027.
Washington Stalls
The bigger American law has hit a wall. On 15 September, the Senate failed to advance the CLARITY Act, which would set the rules for crypto markets. The vote was 49 to 50, well short of the 60 needed. Democrats withheld support over ethics rules on officials’ crypto holdings. With midterms on 3 November, the bill now likely waits for the next Congress, while the SEC and CFTC write their own rules.
That gives Europe an unusual advantage. Its MiCA regulation already provides a single rulebook for crypto across the EU, so European firms have clearer rules than their US rivals for now. Clear rules matter in a sector still plagued by fraud and criminal networks.
The Quantum Clock
The longest-term risk is also the most serious. In March, a Google Quantum AI paper estimated that breaking the digital signatures that secure Bitcoin and Ethereum might need fewer than 500,000 physical qubits, about twenty times fewer than earlier estimates. Google has set itself an internal deadline of 2029 to migrate to quantum-safe systems.
Bitcoin is moving slowly. A proposal known as BIP-360 was merged in February, but it does not yet add quantum-resistant signatures, and a full migration could take seven years or more. Ethereum aims to be quantum-resistant before 2030. Every digital asset that cannot upgrade in time is at risk.
The Bottom Line
The crypto price slump has hidden a quieter story. Blockchain is becoming infrastructure, used by Stripe, Visa and asset managers rather than only by speculators. That is good news for the technology and bad news for anyone still treating it as a get-rich-quick trade.
Four things will decide the next year: Glamsterdam’s launch date, the final GENIUS Act rules, the fate of the CLARITY Act in the next Congress, and Bitcoin’s answer to the quantum threat. Of these, quantum is the one boards should watch most closely. Price falls are temporary. A broken security model is not.
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