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ASSET MARKETS

Crypto / Digital

A market of digital assets that runs around the clock with no central owner.

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Its role in the system

The market for digital assets that exist on a blockchain — a distributed ledger with no central operator: bitcoin, ether, the tokens of decentralised protocols, stablecoins and tokenised versions of traditional assets. It runs around the clock and globally, prices rest mostly on demand and expectations, and traditional finance is connecting to it ever more tightly — through exchange traded funds, custodians and tokenisation.

Functions

  1. Investment assets — bitcoin (a capped supply, “digital gold”) and ether (the fuel of a smart contract platform) are the base of the market and the part institutional investors watch; the remaining tokens are far riskier.
  2. Decentralised finance (DeFi) — protocols built on smart contracts (programs that run on a blockchain) lend against collateral, swap tokens and pay yield without intermediaries; their tokens carry voting rights and a share of the fees.
  3. Stablecoins as liquidity — tokens pegged to the dollar or the euro are the main “cash” of the crypto market for trading and collateral; their role as payment rails is a separate zone of the map.
  4. Tokenising traditional assets — bonds, money market fund units and real estate are issued as tokens so they can be traded and settled around the clock and almost instantly.
  5. A testing ground for financial innovation — new models (automated market makers, lending without a bank) appear here before they reach traditional finance — along with new ways to fail.

What makes it special

  • Value lies in the network and in expectations: most tokens generate no cash flow the way shares or bonds do; the price rests on demand, a capped supply and the usefulness of the network, so a fall of tens of per cent within a few months is normal.
  • Mixed roles: on a centralised crypto exchange the exchange, the broker, the custodian of assets and often the market maker are one and the same company, whereas in traditional finance the law keeps these roles apart. It was exactly this mixing that destroyed FTX.
  • Regulation is catching up: 🇪🇺 the MiCA regulation has applied in full since 30 December 2024 — licences for crypto providers and requirements for stablecoin issuers; 🇺🇸 the SEC allowed exchange traded funds on bitcoin in January 2024, and the GENIUS Act (July 2025) set federal rules for payment stablecoins. It is worth seeing where MiCA stops: it requires a licence, segregation of client assets and honest marketing, but it does not guarantee what an asset is worth and obliges nobody to repay a fraud victim. Most losses happen on unlicensed offshore platforms that victims are walked to through weeks of friendly messaging — MiCA governs those who came for a licence.
  • Transparent but not accountable: every transaction in a public blockchain is visible, but the owners of the addresses are not. So crypto assets are used both for laundering money and evading sanctions, and at the same time on-chain analytics makes it possible to trace what was stolen.
  • Self-custody: whoever holds the private key controls the asset with no intermediary — lose the key and you lose the asset, and a transfer sent by mistake cannot be undone.
  • 🇨🇳 China and 🇯🇵 Japan — a ban, a licence and a new law: mainland China has treated every cryptocurrency transaction and all mining as illegal since September 2021, and at the end of 2025 it extended the ban to stablecoins and to the tokenisation of real-world assets. Within the same country, Hong Kong is building a licensed market instead: since June 2023 crypto exchanges have needed a licence from the securities commission and must keep the bulk of client assets offline; in April 2024 Asia's first spot bitcoin and ether funds were listed there, and since 1 August 2025 a separate stablecoin law licenses issuers. Japan regulated earlier than anyone — since April 2017 a crypto exchange may operate only after registering with the financial regulator, with client assets segregated and most of them held offline. On 15 July 2026 parliament went further and moved crypto assets under the financial instruments law: insider dealing rules, disclosure duties for issuers, and a single twenty per cent tax rate instead of the progressive scale.

Why it matters

The crypto market is still smaller than the traditional ones, but the links between them keep multiplying: crashes wipe out the savings of millions of private investors around the world, and through funds, banks and stablecoins that hold their reserves in government bonds, shocks can be passed into the traditional system.

🌍 The ICO boom, 2017–2018

Hundreds of projects raised billions of dollars selling their own tokens on the strength of a white paper, with no reporting and no supervision; most of those tokens later became worthless. As early as July 2017 the SEC said in its report on The DAO that such tokens can be securities. The case shows why the crypto market is gradually being regulated in the same way as the stock market.

🇺🇸 Spot bitcoin ETFs, January 2024

on 10 January 2024 the SEC allowed exchange traded funds that hold bitcoin directly. A crypto asset became available through an ordinary brokerage account and in retirement portfolios: a market that began as an alternative to banks integrated into the traditional system — and became more closely tied to the stock market.

Links to other zones · 10

  • Anti-Money LaunderingAnti-Money Laundering reaches Crypto / Digital through the FATF travel rule on sender and beneficiary data and through sanctions lists that include crypto addresses.
  • Clearing & settlementCrypto custodians inside Clearing & settlement (Fireblocks, BitGo, Anchorage) hold the keys to Crypto / Digital assets for institutional investors and funds.
  • Crypto / CBDCStablecoins and blockchains used as payment rails belong to Crypto / CBDC; in Crypto / Digital the same tokens are treated as investment assets with a price of their own.
  • Debt marketStablecoin issuers in Crypto / Digital hold their reserves in short-term government bonds, and tokenised money market funds carry the Debt market on-chain.
  • Exchanges & platformsCrypto / Digital assets trade on centralised (Binance, Coinbase) and decentralised (Uniswap) venues: Crypto / Digital is the assets and their prices, Exchanges & platforms is where those prices are made.
  • Financial Market InfrastructureCrypto / Digital is being pulled under Financial Market Infrastructure: licensing of crypto providers and rules for token issuers (🇪🇺 MiCA, 🇺🇸 SEC and CFTC).
  • Investment & Pension FundsSpot bitcoin and ether exchange-traded funds, crypto and venture vehicles bring the institutional capital of Investment & Pension Funds into Crypto / Digital.
  • Retail accessRetail access provides the on-ramps: apps and exchange services are the gateway from a bank account into Crypto / Digital for private investors.
  • Stock markettokenisation started with native tokens and has arrived at ordinary shares: in the Stock market zone the same security exists both as a depository entry and as a token in a wallet — and it is the same share only when the issuer itself created the token.
  • Technology & InfrastructureCrypto / Digital rests entirely on Technology & Infrastructure: blockchain nodes, wallets, smart contract audits and on-chain analytics; a bug in protocol code costs as much as a theft.

Regulation and supervision

Supervised by: Anti-Money Laundering

Crypto exchanges are the gateway between crypto and ordinary money, so that is where identity checks are demanded. 🌍 FATF R.15 requires licensing or registration of such providers, 🇪🇺 adds MiCA and the AMLR, 🇺🇸 uses FinCEN and OFAC.

Standards: FATF Recommendation 15 · EU AMLR 2024/1624 & AMLD6 · MiCA (Regulation 2023/1114) · IOSCO Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets (2023) · US Bank Secrecy Act

Supervised by: Financial Market Infrastructure

Crypto markets finally have conduct rules: 🇪🇺 MiCA has applied in full since 30 December 2024 — platforms need a licence, stablecoins need reserves, insider dealing and pump-and-dump are banned as on an exchange. 🇺🇸 splits oversight between SEC and CFTC; 🇯🇵 licenses exchanges.

Standards: MiCA (Regulation 2023/1114), fully applicable 30 December 2024 · IOSCO Policy Recommendations for Crypto and Digital Asset Markets (2023) · EU DLT Pilot Regime 2022/858 · US GENIUS Act 2025 (payment stablecoins) · Japan Payment Services Act / FIEA

Careers in this zone · 6

Crypto protocol researcher

Works out how a protocol is built: who pays what fees, how tokens are issued, where the weaknesses in the incentive model and the governance lie. Writes research for a fund, an exchange or the protocol itself and concludes whether the project has real use or rests on marketing.

What you need to know

  • How blockchains work: consensus, validators, layer two (L2)
  • DeFi mechanics: lending protocols, AMMs, staking
  • Tokenomics and protocol governance
  • Valuing assets and network metrics

Skills

  • Reading technical documentation and smart contract code
  • Analysing blockchain data (SQL, Dune)
  • Scepticism and an ability to recognise a pyramid
  • Concise analytical writing

Certifications: Usually not required — public research and reputation decide; the CFA is a plus for work at funds

Digital assets trader / market maker

Quotes buy and sell prices for tokens on dozens of centralised and decentralised venues, earning on the spread and on price differences between exchanges. Manages risk around the clock, hedges positions with futures and watches the soundness of the exchanges where the money sits.

What you need to know

  • Crypto market microstructure and liquidity fragmentation
  • Perpetual futures, funding rates, crypto options
  • Counterparty risk — the exchange and the custodian
  • DEX mechanics and MEV (earning from transaction ordering)

Skills

  • Python and trading automation
  • Risk discipline in a market that never sleeps
  • Fast reaction to broken prices and incidents

Certifications: Usually not required — results and programming skills matter

On-chain data analyst

Tracks the movement of funds on a blockchain: flows onto and off exchanges, the behaviour of large players, protocol usage. At analytics firms and regulators, also hunts for stolen funds, links to sanctioned addresses and laundering schemes.

What you need to know

  • The structure of transactions in different blockchains
  • Typologies of money laundering through crypto assets
  • Cross-chain bridges, mixers, privacy protocols
  • Sanctions regimes and the travel rule

Skills

  • SQL and working with blockchain data
  • On-chain analytics tools
  • Investigating and visualising links
  • A clear report for lawyers or a regulator

Certifications: Chainalysis certifications (the CRC, for example); CAMS for roles with an AML focus

DeFi protocol risk analyst

Sets the parameters of decentralised lending protocols: which tokens to accept as collateral, how much may be borrowed against them, when to liquidate a position. Models what happens if a price falls 50 per cent in an hour or a stablecoin loses its peg, so the protocol is not left with uncovered debt.

What you need to know

  • The mechanics of lending protocols and liquidations
  • Token liquidity on exchanges and the risk of price manipulation
  • Oracles — the price sources for smart contracts
  • The risks of stablecoins and cross-chain bridges

Skills

  • Simulations and stress tests (Python)
  • On-chain data analysis
  • Explaining risks to a community that votes on the parameters

Certifications: Usually not required — the FRM or CQF are useful

Asset tokenisation specialist

Moves traditional assets — bonds, fund units, real estate — onto a blockchain: chooses the technical platform, the legal structure, the way assets are held and settled, and negotiates with the regulator and the custodian. Works where the bank, the securities market and the blockchain meet.

What you need to know

  • The legal nature of digital securities (🇪🇺 the DLT Pilot Regime, MiCA)
  • The life cycle of a security: issue, settlement, corporate actions
  • Smart contracts and token standards
  • Custody solutions and settlement in stablecoins or tokenised money

Skills

  • Translating between lawyers, IT and the business
  • Running pilot projects
  • Working with regulators

Certifications: Usually not required — the CFA or CAIA are useful for understanding the assets being tokenised

Tokenomics designer

Designs a token's economics: how many to issue and to whom, how to unlock the team's and investors' shares, what incentives to give users, how the token receives a share of the protocol's revenue. Models what happens under mass selling, so the model does not collapse the way Terra's did.

What you need to know

  • Game theory and incentive design
  • Monetary economics: issuance, token inflation
  • Protocol governance mechanisms (DAOs)
  • The regulatory risk of a token being treated as a security

Skills

  • Scenario modelling and simulation (Python)
  • Analysing data on user behaviour
  • Explaining the model to investors and to the community

Certifications: Usually not required — an economics background and experience of launching projects decide

All zones of the Atlas