This briefing provides background on digital assets ahead of the ECON public hearing on 3 December 2025. In addition to providing quantitative and qualitative background information on digital assets including stablecoins, the briefing also aims to clarify how the decentralized and centralized parts of crypto assets interact. It offers two main take-aways: First, since the creation of Bitcoin as the first genuine digital asset, alternatives have in general re-introduced risks by imitating business models of traditional centralized financial institutions. Second, stablecoins, as a manifestation of this trend, combine elements of decentralized and centralized finance. While they use services of decentralized public ledgers (such as Ethereum) they are (highly) centralized when it comes to corporate decisions (such as minting) or the management of reserve assets and resemble Money Market Funds (MMFs) but with increased operational and cyber risks. Source : © European Union, 2025 - EP Read more