Local Ethereum #12
December 2025 Roundup
Greetings! 👋
Welcome to Local Ethereum, a newsletter where we cover the geo-story of Ethereum. We explore and document the latest stories on Ethereum technology and community from every corner of the earth.
This month: Ethereum communities worldwide shipped infrastructure - AI agents from Japan found critical bugs, Argentina documented 17 years of builder history, and new hubs opened in Lagos. Meanwhile, the broader ecosystem saw prediction markets go mainstream, remittance giants adopt stablecoin settlements, and JPMorgan tokenize money markets on Ethereum.
Let’s dive in!
🗺️ Regional Adoption
Asia-Pacific
India: ETHIndia experimented with ETHIndiaVilla - 52 builders working with “Super Hackers” in small teams over 2 days in Bengaluru produced 17 projects across DeFi, x402 payments, and privacy. Quality over quantity.
Japan: Nyx Foundation, a young R&D collective, deployed an AI agent that discovered 17 vulnerabilities across 8 client implementations in the Ethereum Fusaka audit contest, ranking #1 in submissions and 6th overall in prizes. Automated security finding real bugs.
China: UC Berkeley’s Decentralized Finance course now has a CN version, translated by Dapp Learning, a grassroots Ethereum dev community making technical education accessible.
Philippines: Our deep dive on the Philippines Ethereum Ecosystem covers adoption patterns, developer communities, and what’s being built in Southeast Asia’s fastest-growing crypto market.
Stablecoins and RWA tokenization shape Asia’s crypto rulebook in 2025 - clear frameworks emerging after years of uncertainty.
Europe & North America
UK: The FCA will prioritize stablecoin payments regulation in 2026, part of the UK’s post-Brexit push to become a crypto-friendly financial hub.
Ukraine: Ethereum Ukraine turned 4 years old in December 2025, maintaining community and developer activity through unprecedented conditions.
Latam & Africa
Argentina: The Argentina Builders Archive documents 17 years of crypto history - people, startups, and ideas that shaped the ecosystem. Co-created by Crecimiento with 50 builders and founders. This is how ecosystem memory should be preserved.
Mexico: Ethereum Mexico 2025 and ETH Cinco de Mayo 2025 recap published. 2026 conference scheduled for June in Mexico City.
Nigeria: A new Ethereum Community Hub opened at Web3Bridge in Lagos - providing physical space for the growing developer community.
🪐 Global Ecosystem Update
Scale L1, Scale Blobs and Improve UI/UX
Ethereum Fusaka shipped. Consensys published everything you need to know - focused on blob optimization and validator improvements.
Vitalik argued Ethereum needs to do more to meet its stated mission: “Build the world computer that serves as central infrastructure for a more free and open internet.”
Hegota Upgrade timeline published - implementations expected Q2 2026. Focuses on historical data management and state growth.
Vitalik proposed a trustless gas futures market to provide clear signals of expected gas fees and enable hedging. Users could prepay for gas within defined time intervals.
Josh Rudolf’s summary of what shipped in 2025 on UX improvements - from Open Intents Framework to EIL.
DeFi, Stablecoins & Payments
Uniswap governance passed the ‘UNIfication’ proposal, triggering a 100 million UNI token burn and restructuring the protocol’s economics.
E.H. breaks down the state of x402 at year-end 2025. Adoption growing but fragmented.
MoneyGram (50M+ customers, 200+ territories) partnered with Fireblocks for stablecoin settlements, following Western Union and other remittance giants. Blockchain payment rails are now proven at scale.
x402 V2 launched, evolving the standard for internet-native payments based on production learnings.
Moody’s proposed a framework for rating stablecoins focused on reserve quality. Traditional finance treating stablecoins as a permanent category.
Visa launched a ‘stablecoins advisory practice’ to help banks and businesses build strategies. The question is “how fast,” not “if.”
Institutional
JPMorgan launched a tokenized money-market fund on Ethereum.
Tom Lee’s Bitmine added 44,463 ETH and started staking, treasury now at 3.4% of total supply.
Security
BlockThreat’s weekly roundup covers latest security news, tools, vulnerabilities, and threats across crypto.
Busy year for SEAL_911 - An emergency security response team. Review common security tickets to take preventive action early.
Prediction Market
Coinbase to acquire prediction markets startup The Clearing Company.
MetaMask and other wallets expanding into prediction markets with Polymarket integration. What was standalone is becoming embedded infrastructure.
2026 Predictions and Theses
Messari’s Crypto Theses 2026 unpacks the biggest trends shaping capital allocation and builder focus.
Nine Predictions for 2026 by Paul Veradittakit, Managing Partner at Pantera Capital.
Ecosystem Data 🔢
The Ethereum story isn’t written in numbers, but data offers a glimpse into how the ecosystem moved in 2025.
1.Client diversity has improved!
2.Total value locked on Ethereum
Ethereum’s TVL reached $332.9 billion in December 2025, up 18.7% YoY from $280.4 billion in December 2024.
3.Stabelcoin adoption in 2025
Stablecoin supply across all blockchains hit an all‑time high of around $300 billion in 2025. Ethereum remained the leading network, closing the year with $157.27 billion in stablecoins issued on‑chain, a 42.6% YoY increase from 2024.
4.Perps and prediction markets drive onchain volume growth in 2025.
On‑chain trading surged in 2025, led by perpetuals and prediction markets. Monthly volume across perpetual protocols exceeded $1 trillion for the first time in October, with Ethereum contributing nearly $80 billion.
Prediction markets rebounded following the 2024 U.S. election, reaching $181.95 million in notional volume by January 1, 2026.
5.Top Ecosystem by Monthly Active Developers
Ethereum continues to host the largest number of active developers, maintaining its position as the most developed ecosystem by scale.
6.Ethereum treasuries
As of December 2025, 68 entities collectively held 6.81 million ETH, valued at $20.23 billion - the highest level recorded in 2025.
Opportunities💡
ETHPrague 2026 (May 8-10) is opening volunteer applications. Support the event, meet builders, and join the organizing crew - apply by April 10.
DEPCON Hakodate, a research house side event by Nyx Foundation during Japan’s largest cryptography and security conference SCIS2026, is now accepting applications.
Circle Ventures is launching Arc Builders Fund, backing early-stage projects building on Arc, the Economic OS for the internet.
Thinking about starting something in crypto in 2026? ETHGlobal shared ideas worth exploring.
Stateless Consensus team (EF) shared a proposal on addressing Ethereum’s state size. Calling client developers, node operators, and builders to contribute feedback through forums and calls.
EF is hiring for multiple roles across Enterprise Acceleration, Protocol, dAI, and more.
Highlighted Events in Jan and early Feb✨
ETHChiangmai, Chiangmai, Thailand, Pop up city themed “Make Ethereum Cypherpunk Again”, Dec 8, 2025-Feb 3, 2026.
BUIDL Europe 2026, Lisbon, Portugal, Two-day technical conference, Jan 7-8, 2026.
HackMoney 2026 by ETHGlobal, Online, Async DeFi hackathon, Jan 30-Feb 11, 2026.
Digital Assets Forum, London, UK, Institutional conference, Feb 5-6, 2026.
Consensus Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, Digital assets conference, Feb 10-12, 2026.
Browse 100+ Ethereum events worldwide at ETHStars Events.
Thanks for reading! Wishing you a Happy New Year and exciting 2026 ahead! 🎄
Best regards,
Riely & the Geode Labs team
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