Uncovering Value with Digital Asset Data

Introduction

With the emergence of public blockchains and associated digital assets, we’ve seen an equivalent growth in interest — and in the value — of the data associated with them. When we first began research into Bitcoin nearly five years ago, it was impossible to measure the volume or impact of the data that would be generated. Now, we have hundreds of markets producing billions of data points, and thousands of cryptoassets carrying their own unique data sets. How should we consume and interpret this information to inform decisions?

Evidence-based knowledge is central to evolution. Without data that is commonly trusted and understood, any industry would be challenged to grow and evolve.

A Critical Input

Both blockchain data and market data have become extremely important components of our day-to-day business.

Good data supports our ability to:

• assess the health of the networks we build on
• provide metrics and data to our clients for their consideration
• determine the value of assets held

These datasets are critical factors in our ability to analyze trends, visualize the growth of networks that we may support, and spot challenges for which we may need to prepare. Many of the institutional investors we talk with also require a clear understanding of which data to consider as they explore this set of assets.

We imagine a world, soon, where all types of assets are issued natively on a blockchain or represented in tokenized format. Addressing custody issues for institutional investors is an important foundational step, but other key elements are needed to support development in these markets. Simply, without the best information possible, an industry cannot grow and evolve.

Uncovering Data-Driven Insights

Whether you are a trader looking for an edge, an investor trying to understand usage of a specific blockchain, or an engineer looking to see the vibrancy of a particular network that you may want to work on, plenty of data exists for you to evaluate. However, where do you start? Which data should you trust? Do your peers and colleagues consider the same datasets? These are all questions we have asked, and not yet fully answered.

Specific research and data providers have developed solid approaches. Coin Metrics, Inc., delivers transparent and actionable data to various industry stakeholders. The company began as an open source project in 2017 and tapped into the expertise of a community of developers to become a major industry resource. Coin Metrics announced a seed funding round today that includes Fidelity Investments. We applaud their achievements and look forward to working alongside their talented team to interpret cryptoassets market and network data.

Follow us as we continue to imagine where this evolving economic dataset can take us, and what we can derive from it. We support the continued efforts of an industry that requires consensus around reliable data to enable its growth.