As regulatory hurdles lift, XDC Network’s global reach expands.
In 2025, an entire nation – one with an indispensable role in the global economy – embraced blockchain with open arms. Despite a wall of worry and muted retail interest, advancements in and around the crypto industry have quietly laid the foundation for blockchain adoption to accelerate at its greatest pace yet in 2026.
A look back
This year’s demand for real-world asset applications drove significant innovation across the XDC ecosystem. Perhaps best exemplified by the integration of USDC and CCTP V2, the XDC Network welcomed new use cases and industry-leading liquidity.
Through its blockchain industry partnerships and participation in global regulatory discussions, the XDC Network not only witnessed a burgeoning digital economy develop on chain but also saw leaders on the network play a role in shaping the industry’s direction as a whole.
In ten countries on four continents, leadership, participants, and users of the XDC Network shepherded the use of blockchain, especially in trade finance, where there remains such a dire need for it. In lockstep, the XDC Network’s financial sector partnerships grew massively as it continues to move to solve the $2.5 trillion trade finance gap.
As we wrap 2025, long-standing initiatives and emerging developments position the XDC Network for its greatest increase in adoption since inception.
If 2024 promised a regulatory framework in the U.S., 2025 delivered it.
This year’s passage of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) provided the long-awaited rails governing stablecoin issuance and usage in the U.S. It offers consumer protections through strong reserve requirements and provides a safe passage for institutions longing to enter the digital asset space. In the process, the GENIUS Act strengthens the U.S. dollar’s reserve currency status. It also provides the blueprint for more regulatory advancements.
XDC Network’s interests were represented well at important regulatory discussions, best exemplified by the following:
Digital Economy Council of Australia’s (DECA) Annual Policy Forum in Sydney, alongside Ripple, Binance AU, CoinSpot, and other industry players.
The Digital Chamber’s efforts surrounding blockchain regulation, especially in the U.S.
The Canadian Blockchain Consortium’s legislative discussions in Canada.
Ongoing efforts by the MiCA Crypto Alliance helped to foster regulatory clarity, compliance, and long-term trust in Europe’s evolving digital landscape.
Representative of making inroads with the traditional financial industry, XDC Network’s Ziv Keinan rang the bell at the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich on the momentous occasion of the listing of the first-ever 21Shares XDC Network Exchange-Traded Product (ETP), which allows investors to benefit from XDC’s role in global commerce. The ETP is denominated in both EUR and USD, and is fully collateralized by underlying XDC assets, which are held securely in cold storage.
On separate visits, Fintech.TV interviewed XDC Network co-founders Atul Khekade and Ritesh Kakkad on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.
As the regulatory landscape evolves to bring long-awaited benefits to blockchain, the XDC Network made noteworthy moves through partnerships, integrations, and acquisitions - particularly in the payments and trade finance sectors.
Circle launched native USDC and cross-chain transfer protocol (CCTP V2) on the XDC Network, adding another pillar to the network’s position in the evolving tokenization landscape. This positions the network to expand its DeFi ecosystem and drive broader adoption.
The fully-reserved stablecoin provides almost instantaneous on-chain settlement, featuring advanced security and scalable, low-cost transactions. This increased liquidity, reduced counterparty risk, and seamless settlement will benefit trade finance and institutional applications, in particular. Meanwhile, the Circle Cross Chain Transfer Protocol (CCTP V2) provides the rails for USDC to move easily across supported blockchains.
This year, XDC Ventures, an investment arm within the XDC ecosystem, acquired Contour Network. Contour is a blockchain-based platform for digitized letters of credit, bolstering its status as the premier blockchain in trade finance.
Additionally, the XDC Network integrated institutional-grade compliance into its blockchain through a collaboration with CRYMBO, bringing native support for key compliance features such as the FATF Travel Rule and KYC/AML.
In 2025, XDC Network, along with Archax, Verseprop, Spitfire Group and Daizun, successfully tokenized a commercial real estate finance transaction on-chain. This marked a milestone in the tokenization of real world assets on the XDC Network.
Other Key Blockchain Integrations:
Mercado Bitcoin will utilize the XDC Network infrastructure to expand its digital investment products. The initial phase of the project foresees the issuance of $15MM in fixed-income RWA tokens backed by corporate debt securities of Brazilian companies.
Brazilian securitization firm VERT Capital announced plans to tokenize up to $1 billion in debt and receivables on the XDC Network, expanding the use of blockchain for structured finance. The first issuance for $75MM tokenized an Agribusiness Receivables Certificate (CRA). It spans four series with maturities up to six years and is now fully trackable on a public blockchain, offering daily transparency, lifecycle auditability, and regulatory compliance.
XDC was integrated with Stargate's Hydra network, connecting the ecosystem to a unified composable liquidity layer and unlocking seamless, scalable, and low-cost access from 50+ blockchains.
Through its LayerZero integration, the network unlocks true omnichain functionality, connecting developers, enterprises, and users to over 125 blockchains.
Blockchain analytics leader Elliptic integrated the network, allowing institutions to meet the gold standard in crypto compliance while tokenizing assets as diverse as treasuries, commodities, and trade instruments.
XDC Network and its representatives joined industry events around the world, doing its part to cultivate both its community and the broader blockchain ecosystem.
In North America, XDC Network had a presence at Crypto Week DC and the Silicon Valley June Summit, where Atul Khekade delivered the keynote address. "Look, this is the future,” said the XDC Network co-founder. “There was a time when there was a little bit of regulatory uncertainty around the space, but I think it's all going mainstream.” Meanwhile, XDC Foundation’s Billy Sebell delivered the keynote address at the Boston Blockchain Summit. XDC Foundation hosted the Institutional RWA mixer as part of its presence as a sponsor at Consensus Toronto.
On the Asian continent, the network had a presence at ETHDubai, Token 49 in Singapore, RWA Gulf Week in Dubai, and Indian Blockchain Week in Bengaluru. SBI XDC, a joint venture between financial services conglomerate SBI Holdings and TradeFinex, was a sponsor of WebX, the largest web3 conference in Japan.
In Europe, XDC Network cofounder Atul Khekade attended and participated in a gong ceremony at Euronext Amsterdam, while the network had a presence at SIBOS 2025 in Frankfurt, Germany.
XDC community and ecosystem growth flourished in 2025.
XDC’s community and ecosystem participants continued to cultivate growth and engagement on the network this year:
XDC Foundation led the second Plug and Play RWA Accelerator through a competitive selection process, which progressed into multiple integrations by high-performing startups. These integrations kicked off an ongoing initiative to unlock new pathways for onboarding RWA projects, deepen liquidity, and drive real on-chain demand on XDC. There’s also active collaboration between projects from the first and second cohorts, working together to introduce new RWA opportunities and use cases. Toknar, Brickken, Investbay, Raze Finance and Compute Labs have become integrated ecosystem participants from Cohort 2.
XDC Foundation hosted an RWA Institutional Mixer in Toronto during Consensus kicking off the first of many institutional events in North America.
RWA Night in New York City allowed people interested or involved in real world asset tokenization to the XDC Network.
Also in New York, T3: Tokenization, Trade, and Treasury hosted a full-day program and rooftop mixer in New York, bringing together leaders across decentralized finance.
The XDC Innovation Lab hosted DeFi on XDC: The Next Frontier, an event exploring how real-world DeFi is evolving across stablecoins, institutional-grade solutions, and practical on-chain utility. Speakers from TradeFi Network, Prime Numbers, and XDC Network shared insights on how DeFi on XDC is driving meaningful adoption beyond speculation.
In the fourth quarter of this year, the XDC Network is running XDC Surge, which has allocated $1.25 million in WXDC to boost liquidity across major DeFi platforms, including Curve Finance, XSwap Protocol, and Oku.
The XDC Network partnered in 2025 with DAO Maker, which increases access to investment capital by allowing XDC-native projects to raise funds through the platform.
The XDC Engagement Hub launched as an innovative platform that transforms how blockchain communities interact and grow together. It creates a unified space for community members to participate, contribute, and receive transparent blockchain-based rewards.
The XDC Outpost platform, created by one of our most active community members, offers multiple tools for XDC Network developers to assist with tasks, including mobile alerts for node operators, a dynamic repair robot for RPC endpoint issues, PDF receipts for network payments, and a shopbot for selling digital products and collecting payment, to name a few.
Throughout the year, XDC Network and its ecosystem participants communicated with the broader blockchain movement through podcasts – Inside XDC, XDC APAC, and XDC MENA. The XDC MENA Podcast received over 650,000 views on YouTube alone for its 17 episodes in 2025.
Looking forward, several areas of growth will build on 2025’s momentum.
Moving into 2025, the UK’s first FCA-regulated digital securities exchange, Archax, integrated with XDC Network with the specific focus of enabling financial institutions to access tokenized RWAs more efficiently and broadening the adoption rate in global financial markets in the process.
Major US exchange listings, including Kraken and Binance US, now provide access points to the XDC Network and support growing transaction activity.
As mentioned, having native USDC on the network, as well as Circle’s CCTP V2 for cross-chain transfers, was central to network growth this year and will provide opportunities for more enterprise adoption. XDC Network is quickly climbing the ranks of USDC-integrated networks, with $125.2M officially issued at the time of writing, per usdc.cool.
More exchanges will begin to support USDC on XDC Network. Beginning in Q1 of 2026, there will also be more institutional participation in digital assets through regulated platforms offering safe onboarding and yield-earning opportunities.
From discussions with current and potential partners, it is clear that native USDC has made the XDC Network more attractive to real-world asset and trade finance participants. It is only the beginning of native USDC on XDC Network, and we look forward to onboarding more partners who handle asset purchases, settlement, and yields using the stablecoin.
Blockchain’s role is poised to rise to the challenges of 2026 and beyond.
During a year when both the promises and concerns regarding artificial intelligence took center stage, privacy has become increasingly pertinent, and secure blockchain networks with historical performance like XDC Network remain even more critical than ever.
A realist and believer in community building, XDC Foundation Executive Director Billy Sebell reflected on 2025 from his unique vantage point—celebrating the wins while reminding the community that there is still so much work to be done.
“Rails are continuously being built, and USDC, as an on-ramp, delivers a major step forward for the network,” said Sebell. “We now have a bevy of tokenization platforms coming together on-chain that will be the foundation for institutional adoption. This only means the work and community contributions must continue, at an even greater pace. Yes, there is more work to do, each and every day. Nothing happens overnight, but the process is there. We must not lose sight of the road ahead as we build for the network and the community, determined to accomplish something meaningful. That is who we are.”
[1] XDC Foundation strives to cover relevant developments on the XDC Network. Our coverage is intended as a bold and unequivocal endorsement of the network and never as an endorsement of any third party’s products; always consult qualified advisors before making financial decisions.
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