During the past year the cryptocurrency market has firmly moved beyond niche speculation and now it plays a visible role in global finance and technology. After briefly exceeding $4 trillion in total market capitalization in 2025, digital assets continue to command attention from individual investors, financial institutions, and policymakers alike, even amid volatility and price swings. Adoption metrics show that digital asset usage grew rapidly across diverse regions in 2025. Global adoption was led by countries in South Asia, while the United States remained one of the largest crypto markets by activity and transaction volume. Stablecoins alone – cryptocurrencies pegged to fiat currencies – accounted for around 30 % of all on‑chain transaction volume, reflecting their central role in the global Web3 ecosystem.
Institutional interest has also quietly strengthened. Surveys suggest that over 40 % of financial services organizations globally are planning or already implementing crypto‑related initiatives, even in the face of market uncertainty. Meanwhile, surveys of hedge funds indicate growing exposure to digital assets, underscoring that crypto has begun to integrate into mainstream investment strategies. These data show the trend: from institutional adoption to blockchain innovation, crypto is no longer a niche experiment. It’s becoming a key part of modern investment and finance.
For Serbia and the wider Central and Southeast Europe region, this global momentum has direct implications. Local tech and finance communities are increasingly engaging with blockchain projects, while businesses explore how digital assets can support cross‑border payments, tokenized products, and new financial services. In Serbia, an estimated 200,000 people (roughly 3% of the population) actively invest in cryptocurrencies, while broader surveys suggest that up to one-third of citizens have had some exposure to digital assets, highlighting growing mainstream interest.
Echoing these worldwide shifts, PCPress spoke with one of the industry’s leading experts, Péter Kanti, Head of Blockchain and Digital Assets at Dorsum, to unpack what the state of crypto in 2025 means in practice and what lies ahead. Dorsum, a Hungarian firm with over 30 years of experience in the financial industry, partners with its clients to deliver crypto and blockchain consulting alongside investment software solutions. The company works with more than 80 clients across 10 European countries and has recently expanded its presence by opening an office for the Adriatic region.
“If I had to summarize 2025 in one word, I would say: contradiction,” Kanti explains. “The market at one point felt like a helium balloon, reaching around $4.3 trillion, only to halve by the end of the year. Despite the volatility, interest in the technology remained strong and continued to expand, something we could also sense in our client conversations.” Yet behind volatility, real progress was happening. “Big financial players no longer want PoC projects; they want production,” Kanti adds. Banks and funds are actively hiring crypto specialists and building infrastructure, signaling that institutional adoption is finally moving from theory to practice. Still, here comes a key challenge: talent. Financial institutions are actively exploring how to implement technologies that can expand their business and power up new services and offers for their clients. “Professionals who understand both financial markets and technology are critical – and there aren’t enough of them. This gap between finance and engineering is emerging as a key bottleneck to growth. With deep industry expertise, strong knowledge of the Adriatic markets and advanced technological capabilities, fintech companies like Dorsum are becoming natural partners for banks and key drivers of transformation,” Kanti explains.
At the same time, an unexpected ally appears: artificial intelligence. With initiatives from companies like OpenAI, intelligent systems are beginning to play a serious role in smart contract auditing. “AI can dramatically reduce the risk of errors that have cost us dearly for years,” Kanti says. In a world where code is often shipped too quickly and without enough checks, this is not a luxury, but rather a necessity. “Intelligent systems can now audit smart contracts faster and more reliably, reducing risks that have cost the industry dearly,” he notes.
Looking ahead, 2026 is expected to focus on utility rather than hype. Stablecoins and tokenized assets will grow, but the key question is whether they will be actively used on chain: “The next phase isn’t tokenization for the sake of it, it’s about functional utility, using T-bills as collateral in DeFi, trading tokenized equities in automated strategies,” says Kanti.
Despite challenges like regulation, liquidity, and legacy integration, Kanti is optimistic: “For the first time, we may see institutional transaction volumes happening on chain as routine operations, not experiments.”
After a turbulent 2025, in 2026 crypto is maturing. It’s no longer the no‑rules zone, but a market learning to integrate with the real world, in Serbia and beyond. Banks that still move at legacy speed risk becoming spectators, while those with a clear digital strategy. Powered by agile fintech partners, they will lead the next era of banking, delivering seamless services literally at customers’ fingertips.
The original article was published in Serbian in PCPress.
