2025 Review and Christmas Greetings

Looking back on a pivotal year and ahead to 2026, with gratitude and season’s greetings

Dear friends,

2025 has been a pivotal year for the crypto market. Bitcoin is ending the year with a slightly negative performance, yet after repeatedly reaching new all-time highs and further consolidating its role as a store of value and a diversification tool—now widely recognized by both institutional and private investors.

Within this context, CheckSig has continued to grow, expanding our services and strengthening the pillars that have always defined our value proposition: security, transparency, and regulatory compliance. Leveraging our unique position as the only provider offering a public proof-of-reserves and acting as a crypto tax substitute in Italy, we have:

• launched the operations of CheckSig Suisse;
• obtained the Gender Equality Certification;
• introduced Crypto Accumulation Plans and crypto custody as collateral for euro-denominated loans;
• renewed and expanded our insurance coverage with Munich RE;
• renewed, for the fifth consecutive year, the SOC1/SOC2 Type II attestations with Deloitte;
• formally submitted our application for authorization under the European MiCA regulation;
• appointed Luisa Coloni as Independent Chair of the Board of Directors;
• once again achieved performance exceeding that of Bitcoin, our natural benchmark.

In addition, we were recognized as “Best Fintech” at the Banking Awards 2025 and have just completed a capital increase raising over €3.5 million, at a company valuation exceeding €33.5 million.

For all of this, I would like to thank our colleagues, collaborators, shareholders, clients, and everyone who follows us with warmth and support: nothing we have achieved would have been possible without you. And nothing we aim to accomplish in the coming year would be possible without you either.

In 2026, it will be crucial to continue our dialogue with regulators and obtain the MiCAr license, to further expand our range of products and services (there will be major surprises), and to secure additional certifications to protect our clients.

We regret the ongoing tax uncertainty in Italy surrounding the capital gains rate on crypto assets. This is an issue of fairness and justice that we have been committed to addressing for some time, with consistency and a spirit of public service. I reaffirm our commitment to achieving clarity, stability, and common sense in this area.

Looking ahead to 2026, I am confident that the continued maturation of the market will create significant opportunities for those who invest with vision and discipline. I therefore invite you to read the Crypto Outlook 2026 and to take part in the sixth annual Crypto Asset Lab conference, organized by the European Commission and the University of Milan-Bicocca together with the Digital Gold Institute, our research and development center.

Yet the end of the year is not only a time to reflect on what we have done or will do; it also coincides with the message of Christmas, eloquently explained by Pope Leo XIV:

«God loves first; He loves before all else. In His mercy, He has always wished to draw all people to Himself, and it is His life, given for us in Christ, that makes us one, that unites us with one another.»

Even those who do not believe can sense the echo of this message, because—as Luigi Giussani writes—all human beings seek, sometimes unconsciously,

«a place in which to rest and live relationships in peace, that is, redeemed from falsehood, violence, and the nothingness into which everything would otherwise tend to fall. Christmas is the good news that this place exists, not in the sky of a dream, but on the earth of a tangible reality.»

This is a news for believers, but it can be a source of hope and a heartfelt wish for everyone. I hope and wish you and your loved ones a peaceful Christmas and a happy New Year.

Warm regards,
Ferdinando Ametrano