The Superintendency of the Securities Market of the Dominican Republic (SIMV) held an awards ceremony to close the second edition of its Dominican Capital Markets Competition, selecting three winning research papers from submissions by university students and young professionals. The competition, supported by the Association of Brokerage Firms of the Dominican Republic (APB), focused on the theme “Linkage structures that redefine development” across four tracks: public-private partnerships, innovation and technology, behavioral economics and finance, and financial education and investor protection. Launched on 13 June 2025, it attracted 25 proposals that were assessed by a 47-member jury; each winner received DOP 200,000. The awarded papers covered (i) a proposal for gradual implementation of blockchain technology in the Dominican securities market to improve traceability, transparency, security and efficiency, (ii) research on how cognitive biases and behavioral factors affect retail investor decisions in volatile markets, and (iii) an empirical vector autoregression (VAR) analysis of linkages among securities market, government, banking and external interest rates.