Finance and Accounting
Crypto-assets and blockchain
Crypto-assets combine two things worth keeping apart: a technology, distributed ledgers with keys, wallets and smart contracts, and a speculative market built on top of it. The first is a legitimate subject for developers and payment engineers. On the second, the UK Financial Conduct Authority tells buyers to assume they could lose everything they put in and says compensation cover is highly unlikely. The sections below explain the mechanics and give no advice to buy anything.
Why this topic exists: Distributed ledgers, keys and wallets, smart contracts, tokens and DeFi: the technical side rests on the Bitcoin and Ethereum documentation, the consumer side on the FCA's warning that a crypto investor should be prepared to lose everything.
Next to this topic
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- TaxIncome, corporate, VAT and sales tax, capital gains and returns: CPA REG and the TCP discipline, ACCA Taxation and Advanced Taxation, CFP's Tax Planning domain; the one finance topic every adult meets.
- EconomicsSupply and demand, national accounts, inflation, interest rates, monetary and fiscal policy: the CFA topic Economics; the macro context every other finance topic assumes.
Courses on this topic
388 courses cover this topic. The first 6 are listed; details and the provider link are on each course page.
Last reviewed 26 September 2026 · Getting Digital