Alastria, Spain’s public-permissive blockchain platform, announced the winners of its third annual “Blockchain Awards 2025” this Wednesday at the Movistar Arena in Madrid, held as part of Madrid Tech Week. The awards highlighted the growing maturity of blockchain applications in the productive economy, just as institutional interest begins to target more complex decentralized finance (DeFi) products in the U.S.
Real-World Asset Tokenization Gains Recognition
Among the top honorees, Prosegur Crypto’s “Digital Gold” project and the “OpenBrick” platform were recognized as winners in the Tokenization and Digital Assets category. Both were lauded for developing investment models that connect real-world assets to blockchain technology.
Prosegur Crypto’s “Digital Gold” allows investment in tokenized physical gold. Each one-kilogram bar is divided into 1,000 tokens equivalent to one gram, all fully backed by gold stored in Prosegur’s high-security vaults. This model allows users to buy or sell tokens at market price, combining the stability of a traditional asset with the transparency of blockchain, without direct exposure to volatile cryptocurrencies. José Ángel Freire, CEO of Prosegur Crypto, is scheduled to discuss the asset’s advantages at the Finect Investment On Change (FIOC) 2025 event on November 25.
Similarly, OpenBrick, a platform driven by Grupo Lar, Renta 4 Banco, and ioBuilders, aims to transform real estate finance. Having been accredited in the official sandbox of the CNMV (Spain’s securities regulator), the project uses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) on the Hedera network to provide investors with access to real estate projects offering greater liquidity, transparency, and efficiency.
Innovation Honored Across Identity, Industry, and Sustainability
Beyond tokenization, the Alastria awards highlighted innovation in other key sectors. In Decentralized Digital Identity, the prize went to SSItizens (by Izertis), a solution that digitizes the management of social aid using verifiable credentials. For Industrial Uses, the winner was CleanNature.io (by Sercampo), which uses blockchain and IoT sensors to log the life cycle of industrial waste.
The Web3 category was won by OnePass Bridge (by FundingBox), a European standard using verifiable credentials to certify the reliability of startups. The Sustainability award went to BePlastic (by Fujitsu) for using blockchain to certify plastic collection and recycling.
This year also featured two new distinctions: “Most Influential Woman in Blockchain” was presented to Paula Pascual Cortés, CEO of MERGE, while “Journalistic/Dissemination Work” was given to Covadonga Fernández of Observatorio Blockchain.
“The winning projects demonstrate that blockchain is a vector for growth and innovation,” said Miguel Ángel Domínguez, president of Alastria. “The measurable results… confirm that blockchain is a competitive advantage for Europe.”
Institutional Push Targets Next Frontier: DeFi ETFs
While established European projects earn awards for tokenizing tangible assets, the U.S. market is pushing into the next frontier of crypto-finance. The fervor for cryptocurrency ETFs continues as Swiss-based asset manager 21Shares has filed a proposal with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) based on HYPE, the native token of the Hyperliquid network.
The proposed fund would allow large investors to gain exposure to the DeFi asset without holding it directly, a regulated formula gaining traction among major funds. The ETF’s assets would be held by custodians Coinbase Custody and BitGO.
What is Hyperliquid?
Hyperliquid is a blockchain network focused on perpetual markets and DeFi, which has already processed over $3 trillion in cumulative trading volume. Its primary appeal lies in its design, which mimics the user experience of a centralized exchange (CEX), combined with the elimination of transaction (gas) fees and deep liquidity. These features have made it an attractive platform for both institutional and retail traders.
Market Context and Regulatory Hurdles
This filing comes as institutional interest in crypto hits an all-time high. In October alone, U.S.-listed Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs accumulated over $5.4 billion in net inflows, signaling strong investor appetite for regulated crypto assets.
While the SEC had previously accelerated its review timelines for crypto ETFs from 240 to 75 days, a potential U.S. government shutdown over budget disagreements threatens to delay these decisions. This has not stopped other managers like Grayscale, Bitwise, and Canary from filing for their own funds based on tokens such as Solana, Litecoin, and HBAR.
What the HYPE ETF Signifies
The Hyperliquid ETF could forge a new pathway for institutional capital to enter on-chain DeFi markets, a space previously dominated by more technical users. 21Shares has also filed for a leveraged version of the ETF, seeking to double the index’s daily performance. If approved after the government reopens, it would be the first fund of its kind tracking a DeFi protocol in the United States.
The market has responded with optimism. The HYPE token has recovered from its October lows, rising from $33 to $47. Analysts note a bullish technical pattern that could project its value toward $60, despite recent broad sales pressure in the crypto market. The Total Value Locked (TVL) on the Hyperliquid network has also grown by nearly 11% in the last week, the highest rise among major DeFi platforms.
