Experience, expertise, authority, trust

Analysts & methodology

The people behind the research, the framework behind the ratings, and the reason a venture score here is something you can argue with rather than something you have to take on faith.

How we work

Primary sources first

We read filings, rule texts, licence records and audited statements before we read anyone's press release. Where a claim only exists in company material, we attribute it to the company.

On-chain before off-chain

Supply, reserves and settlement figures are pulled from public chain data. If a figure cannot be checked on-chain or against an attestation, it is labelled as reported rather than verified.

Read-only, non-custodial

Analytics connections are read-only by design. The desk never requests withdrawal permission, never holds reader keys and never manages money.

Scored, not vibed

Venture reviews carry a scorecard covering disclosure quality, on-chain verifiability and operational substance, so a rating can be argued with rather than simply believed.

Corrections in public

Errors of fact are corrected on the article and noted with the date. Right of reply is offered to any organisation we assess critically.

Data handling

API read-only access
Every exchange and node connection we use is read-only. No withdrawal permission is ever requested or held.
Independently verified on-chain data
Balances, supply and settlement figures are read from public chain data and cross-checked against issuer disclosures.
Non-custodial analytics
We never take custody of reader funds or keys. The desk publishes research, not managed accounts.

How a venture is vetted

Each venture review is scored on three axes: disclosure quality, on-chain verifiability and operational substance. A venture with immaculate marketing and no verifiable collateral scores badly. A venture doing unglamorous physical work with partial reporting scores well on substance and is marked down on verification until the attestations land.

Worked example: Burlcore Mining scorecard
Axis	Score	What it measures
Disclosure quality	72 / 100	licence and ESG documentation
On-chain verifiability	41 / 100	pending attestation feed
Operational substance	88 / 100	physical extraction and processing

Worked example: the Burlcore Mining venture review, where blockchain-verified value is assessed against what the company can actually evidence today.

The analysts

Daniel Voss
Senior Research Analyst, Digital Assets & RWA
Daniel works from licence registers, custody agreements and attestation reports, and treats an issuer's own marketing as a claim to be tested rather than a source.
Real-world assets · Gold-backed tokens · Reserve attestations
Anya Korolenko
Lead Editor, Crypto & Emerging Markets
Anya sets the verification bar for the desk: every factual claim needs a primary document, an on-chain address or a named regulator behind it before it runs.
Editorial standards · Emerging-market commodity finance · Tokenised collateral
Marcus Feld
Markets Correspondent
Marcus builds his stories from exchange data, fund creation and redemption records and company filings, and avoids reporting price moves without a mechanism behind them.
Market structure · Listed crypto equities · IPOs and public listings
Priya Nair
Regulation & Policy Reporter
Priya reads primary rule texts, consultation responses and court filings, and quotes the statute rather than the press release summarising it.
US and UK regulation · EU MiCA · Enforcement actions
Tomas Reyes
Exchanges & Infrastructure Editor
Tomas cross-checks venue disclosures against proof-of-reserve data and insolvency filings, and has covered every major exchange collapse since 2018.
Exchange operations · Custody · Settlement infrastructure
Lena Whitfield
Institutional Desk Analyst
Lena tracks allocator mandates and fund documentation, and reports on flows only where she can tie them to a named vehicle and a dated disclosure.
Institutional allocation · Tokenised treasuries · Money-market funds
Kwame Osei
Africa & Emerging Markets Correspondent
Kwame reports from site where he can, checks concession details against the relevant national mining registry, and speaks to local officials and community groups directly.
African mining policy · Minerals licensing · Digital-asset adoption in sub-Saharan Africa
Sofia Marchetti
Stablecoins & Payments Reporter
Sofia compares attestation reports across quarters to see what changed in the reserve composition, rather than reprinting headline totals.
Stablecoin issuance · Reserve attestations · Cross-border payments
Hiroshi Tanaka
Security & On-Chain Forensics
Hiroshi traces stolen funds address by address and publishes the transaction hashes so readers can follow the same trail.
Exchange breaches · Protocol exploits · On-chain forensics
Emma Lindqvist
DeFi & Protocols Analyst
Emma reads client release notes and governance forums directly, and tests upgrade claims against public network data before writing them up.
Protocol upgrades · Rollup economics · DeFi risk
Rafael Duarte
Latin America Markets Reporter
Rafael reads central bank consultations and exchange filings in the original language, and reports adoption numbers only where a regulator or issuer stands behind them.
Latin American markets · Payment adoption · Local exchange regulation
Yuki Sato
Asia Policy Correspondent
Yuki follows licensing decisions through the regulators' own registers and tracks how each new regime changes venue behaviour on the ground.
Japan FSA · Korea and Singapore policy · Hong Kong licensing
Hannah Weiss
Fund Flows Reporter
Hannah works from daily product-level flow data and mandates, and separates rebalancing from genuine new allocation before drawing conclusions.
Exchange-traded products · Creations and redemptions · Allocator positioning
Oliver Grant
Energy, Compute & Infrastructure Reporter
Oliver models hashprice and power contracts from published operator disclosures, and flags where an operator's own guidance differs from grid data.
Mining economics · Data-centre power · AI compute demand

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