Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond Review

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Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor's Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond

Cryptoassets: The Innovative Investor’s Guide to Bitcoin and Beyond — review guide, everything you need to know with FAQ

Thinking about picking up “Cryptoassets” but not sure if it’s still worth your time and money?

I read and review crypto books for a living. If you’re wondering whether this 2017 classic still belongs on your shelf (or in your headphones), you’re in the right spot. I’ll cut through the noise, tell you exactly what you’ll actually learn, and show you how to use its best frameworks in today’s market.

You’ll walk away knowing whether this book still holds up in 2025, who it’s best for, the key ideas you can apply right now, and answers to the questions everyone asks on Google. Prefer listening? Here’s the audiobook: Cryptoassets on Audible.

The problems most readers run into

Let’s be honest: crypto content can feel like drinking from a firehose. There’s too much noise, lots of outdated hot takes, and very little you can reuse when making real investment decisions. New investors don’t know where to start; experienced ones want a system, not hype.

Signal vs. noise: It’s easy to get lost in daily headlines and miss the big drivers of value.

Outdated advice: What worked in the 2017 ICO era isn’t a one-to-one fit for 2025’s on-chain markets.

No playbook: Most “guides” skip the hard part—valuation, allocation, risk controls, and custody.

“If you can’t explain why you own an asset without price action, you don’t have a thesis—you have a hope.”

That’s the gap this review fills: not another summary, but a practical filter so you know if to read “Cryptoassets,” why to read it, and how to turn its best ideas into a repeatable workflow.

What I promise in this review

Zero fluff: A straight-shot review from someone who researches crypto platforms daily.

Context that matters: What the book nails, where it’s dated, and how that impacts you in 2025.

Immediate utility: Exactly how to apply the book’s most useful frameworks without wasting time.

Honest trade-offs: When you should pick this over other popular crypto books—and when you shouldn’t.

What we’ll cover

Quick snapshot of the book and authors so you know what you’re getting into before buying or listening.

Core frameworks you can actually use: valuation, portfolio construction, security, and research mindset.

Relevance in 2025: what’s timeless, what’s dated, and what I’d add for today’s market.

Pros and cons versus other well-known reads and who each one serves best.

Practical checklists you can copy into your workflow (allocation, due diligence, security).

FAQ with the real “People Also Ask” style questions, answered clearly.

Quick note before we keep going: if you’re more of a listener, the audiobook version is easy to follow and great for a commute—here’s the link again: Cryptoassets Audiobook.

Ready to see what the book actually is—and who wrote it? That’s up next, and it’ll help you decide in 30 seconds whether this belongs in your queue.

Quick snapshot: what “Cryptoassets” is and who wrote it

Think of this as the first serious field guide that treated Bitcoin, Ethereum, and early tokens like an investable asset class—built for people who want a method, not memes. First released in 2017 and available as an audiobook, it set the tone for research-driven crypto investing when most content was either tech-speak or hype.

“Frameworks outlive market cycles. Hype dies; discipline compounds.”

Authors and credibility

Chris Burniske made his name leading crypto research at ARK Invest before co-founding Placeholder, a venture firm focused on web3. He’s one of the earliest voices to frame tokens as a spectrum of assets with different economic properties. His writing popularized valuation thinking when “crypto valuation” wasn’t a phrase you’d hear on CNBC.

Jack Tatar brings decades of investor experience and plain-English writing. He’s co-authored several personal finance titles, and here he focuses on practical investor behavior—risk, taxes, custody—so the book doesn’t get lost in theory.

Together, they bridge Wall Street rigor with crypto-native curiosity. If you want receipts: their frameworks influenced the way many funds today talk about network effects, velocity, and portfolio sizing. Independent research (for example, the NBER paper “Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency”, 2018) later reinforced the idea that crypto has unique risk/return drivers—exactly why structured frameworks matter.

What the book covers at a glance

Clear definitions: Breaks “cryptoassets” into currencies (BTC), platforms (ETH), and application tokens—handy when you’re comparing very different things with one ticker tape.

History and context: A readable arc from cypherpunks to early exchanges and ICOs, showing how narratives shaped adoption.

Valuation tools: Introduces equation-of-exchange thinking (MV = PQ), network value metrics like NVT, and adoption curves. For example, it shows how token utility and velocity tug price in opposite directions—still a useful mental model when you look at fee-burning assets or tokens with heavy emissions.

Portfolio construction: Position sizing, rebalancing, and setting rules before emotions take over. If you’ve ever panic-bought a green candle, this is your antidote.

Security and custody: Why hardware wallets beat hot wallets, why exchange convenience can cost you, and the basics of operational hygiene.

Taxes (US-centric): High-level guidance on taxable events and record-keeping. Not a tax bible—enough to stop you from learning the hard way.

Case studies: Bitcoin and Ethereum get the spotlight, plus early token examples to show how utility, speculation, and community interact across a cycle.

It’s not a technical manual. It’s a practical investor blueprint—focused on how to think, what to watch, and where people usually trip.

Who this book is best for

Beginner-to-intermediate investors who want structure without jargon.

Traditional finance folks who understand portfolios and want crypto frameworks that map to what they know.

Builders and operators who want the investor lens: what drives value, what breaks, and how markets price risk.

Researchers and students needing a foundation before they look into on-chain data and protocol design.

If you’re tired of doomscrolling and want a steady way to evaluate assets, this is the kind of resource that calms the noise.

What’s missing (because of timing)

Published in 2017, it won’t teach you the mechanics of today’s playbook:

DeFi primitives (AMMs like Uniswap, lending markets, liquid staking, perps)

NFTs and creator economies (royalty models, liquidity dynamics)

Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake era (The Merge, validator economics, MEV)

Layer-2s and rollups (Optimism, Arbitrum, ZK tech)

Stablecoin mechanics (collateral models, reserves transparency, payment rails)

Restaking and RWA (new risk surfaces and yield sources post-2023)

That’s okay. You’ll get the mental models, then layer modern tooling on top. The missing pieces are extensions, not replacements.

Ready for the useful stuff? Next up, I break down the big ideas from the book that still help you pick winners and avoid landmines. Want a simple way to separate “cryptoassets” from “cryptocurrencies” so your comparisons actually make sense?

Big ideas and frameworks you’ll actually use

Cryptoassets vs cryptocurrencies

Labels matter. The book separates the space into three practical buckets, and I still use them to set expectations:

Currencies: assets designed to be money or a store of value. Think BTC as “digital gold.” Questions I ask: Is issuance predictable? Is security credible? Who are the marginal buyers (retail, corporates, ETFs)?

Platforms: smart contract networks where others build. ETH and SOL live here. Questions I ask: Is there real demand for blockspace? What drives fee revenue? How sticky is the developer ecosystem?

Application tokens: tokens tied to a specific protocol/app (DEXs, lending markets, perpetuals, gaming). UNI, MKR, GMX are familiar examples. Questions I ask: What are the demand sinks? Do revenues/buybacks/burns credibly accrue to the token?

Once you classify an asset, you can compare apples to apples. A platform token with rising fee revenue competes with other platforms, not with BTC. An app token with buyback-and-burn competes with other cash-flow-like tokens, not with stablecoins. Simple, but it prevents a lot of confused takes.

Valuation tools you can reuse

Perfection isn’t the goal; a workable model you can iterate is. These are the tools I keep reaching for:

Equation of Exchange (MV = PQ): A sanity check for monetary tokens and app economies.
- Quick example: If a gaming ecosystem processes $60M a year in in-game purchases (PQ) and the token turns over 6 times (V), the monetary base (M) that “fits” that economy is about $10M. If fully diluted market cap is $2B with no credible sinks, you’re paying for far more than current utility. That doesn’t mean it can’t run, but it frames risk.
- Two levers matter: reduce V (staking, collateral, lockups) or grow PQ (more real users/throughput). Watch teams optimize for both.

Network value metrics: Ratios like NVT (network value to transaction volume) or the NVT Signal can help flag froth or underuse. They’re noisy and gameable, so I pair them with fee revenue and active entities from sources like Coin Metrics and Glassnode. Historically, sustained increases in fee revenue and active users have lined up with more durable market moves.

Adoption curves: Crypto growth often follows S-curves. Early plateaus don’t mean failure; they might just be the flat part before a new catalyst (e.g., ETFs for BTC, L2s for ETH). I map where an asset is on the curve and what catalyst moves it to the next phase.

Utility and velocity: Tokens without demand sinks churn. Tokens with staking that secures the network, collateral roles, fee burns, or buybacks slow velocity and tighten supply. EIP-1559 turning ETH fees into burns is a canonical example of value capture aligning with usage.

Multiple studies and dashboards over the years have shown that user growth + fee traction beats raw transaction counts. In short: I give more weight to who is paying and for what than to headline volume alone.

Portfolio construction and risk

The book’s portfolio mindset aged well: treat crypto like an asset class and use rules, not vibes.

Risk buckets: I split into core (BTC, ETH), growth (credible platforms/L2s/DeFi leaders), and speculative (new narratives, small caps). If you’re new, think 60/30/10 as a starting template and adjust to your sleep-at-night level.

Position sizing: Cap single speculative names at 1–2% of portfolio. If it 5x’s, great; if it goes to zero, it doesn’t wreck you.

Rebalancing: I prefer bands over calendars. When a bucket drifts 20–25% off target, I rebalance. In high-volatility markets, this “harvest the swings” approach has historically added return while cutting risk. Crypto backtests from multiple desks have echoed this rebalancing edge, especially during long chop.

Pre-commit rules: Decide adds, trims, and exits before you buy. It removes a lot of regret trading.

“When prices shout, your plan whispers. If you can’t hear it, you don’t have one.”

Security, custody, and tax basics

Straight talk: returns mean nothing if you fumble custody or taxes.

Custody: Use a hardware wallet for any asset you won’t touch for months. For higher balances, consider multi-sig (2-of-3) or a reputable managed custody solution. Exchanges are for trading, not storage.

Operational security: App-based 2FA (not SMS), unique email aliases for each exchange, withdrawal allowlists, and small test withdrawals. Back up seed phrases on steel; never type them on a connected device.

Taxes: Trades, spending, staking rewards, and airdrops can be taxable. Use software (Koinly, CoinTracker, Accointing) to tag transactions and track cost basis with specific identification when your jurisdiction allows it. Keeping records early beats forensic panic in April.

Case studies that teach patterns

Bitcoin: Scarcity is obvious; new demand rails are the real story. Each cycle added a structural buyer: early retail, then institutions, and lately spot ETFs. That pattern—supply schedule + adoption channel—is what I look for in other assets.

Ethereum: Value capture matured as usage matured. EIP-1559 redirected fees into burns, and staking reduced float and velocity. When L2 activity grows, fee flows matter more than headline TPS. I track net new ETH issuance vs. fees burned and L2 settlement value to ground long-term theses.

2017-era “utility” tokens: Many had no demand sinks and sky-high velocity. They taught a lesson I still apply: if users can get the service without needing the token, price becomes pure reflexivity. Contrast that with protocols where fees fund buybacks/burns or where the token is required as productive collateral—those designs create clearer economic links.

Once you see these patterns, you can scan a new token and quickly answer: Where does value come from, what slows velocity, who are the buyers, and what unlocks the next adoption step?

Now the real question: in a world of L2s, restaking, and ETFs, which of these ideas still hit in 2025—and which ones aged like milk? Keep going; I’ll show you exactly where this framework shines today and where it needs a tune-up.

Is it still relevant in 2025? My honest take

Still timeless

Short answer: yes, with asterisks. The book’s strength is the investor mindset it instills. It pushes you to ask: What problem does this network solve? Where does value accrue? What are my risks and how do I size them?

Three parts I still lean on constantly:

Research-first approach: Read primary sources, form a thesis, and update it. In 2021–2022, that habit alone separated people who survived from those who got steamrolled by narratives.

Position sizing and rebalancing: Treating crypto in risk buckets is still a cheat code. If you capped speculative bets and rebalanced in 2021, your 2022 drawdowns were painful—but not terminal.

Value via utility and network effects: The core idea—value follows usage and scarcity—remains true. We just have better ways to measure it now.

“Frameworks age better than forecasts—and in crypto, that’s the only edge that compounds.”

For example, Bitcoin’s “digital gold” thesis matured as long-term holder supply hit record highs through 2023–2024 (several analytics firms tracked >70% of BTC not moving for 1+ years). That’s a network effect signal that still fits the book’s lens: persistent conviction and scarcity can anchor value in rough markets.

Dated parts you should know about

It’s a 2017 book, so some sections are basically a time capsule. That’s fine—just read them as history, not instructions.

ICO analysis: The mechanics and risks are useful context, but the market moved on. Launches now happen via airdrops, LBP auctions, points, fair launches, or exchange listings—with stricter KYC in many regions.

Exchange landscape: Custody and trading have professionalized. Spot Bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. changed how institutions allocate, and global liquidity is more fragmented across CEXs and DEXs than the book suggests.

Regulatory assumptions: Enforcement-led clarity in the U.S., MiCA in the EU rolling out, FATF Travel Rule—none of that is reflected. Treat the regulation parts as historical reference.

Limited DeFi/NFTs/staking: The playbooks for yield, governance, and on-chain liquidity didn’t exist at the time. If you trade or farm, you need far more current material.

One practical example of where it’s dated: the book’s nod to simple valuation ratios like NVT is fine, but in 2025 you’ll be blind without fee revenue, sustainable user activity, liquidity depth, staking dynamics, and unlock schedules. Velocity alone won’t tell you why a chain with heavy MEV or mercenary incentives looks “active” but leaks value.

What I’d add for today’s reader

If I could hand you a 2025 addendum, it would include:

L2s and rollups: Don’t just ask “Is it fast?” Ask:
- Are fault proofs live and battle-tested?
- Is the sequencer decentralized or a single point of failure?
- What’s the bridging risk and exit time?
- How much usage is inorganic (incentives/points) vs sticky?

Stablecoins and RWA: Track share of settlement in USDT/USDC, off-chain reserves, blacklisting risk, and growth of tokenized funds. BlackRock’s tokenized fund launch on Ethereum in 2024 and Franklin Templeton’s on-chain money fund are signals: on-chain dollars and Treasuries are becoming core rails.

Staking and restaking: For PoS assets, model staking ratio, real yield (after dilution), slashing risk, and rehypothecation via restaking. Ask what happens in stress—does correlated slashing nuke your “low-risk” yield?

DEX liquidity and MEV: Liquidity depth, oracle design, and MEV protections matter. Thin liquidity equals bad slippage; poor oracle design equals exploitable prices. Ethereum’s PBS era and inclusion lists changed how value is extracted—understand the tax on users.

On-chain metrics beyond NVT: Real fees, net issuance/burn (ETH), realized cap and MVRV, cohort behavior (new vs long-term holders), free float, token unlocks/vesting, protocol revenue split (to token or to LPs?), and cross-chain flows.

Regulatory reality check: With spot BTC ETFs live in the U.S. and the EU’s MiCA in motion, allocation routes and compliance checklists look very different than they did in 2017. Read the room before you size a position.

A quick snapshot of how these add-ons change decisions in the real world:

ETH “ultrasound” story: Post-EIP-1559, simply applying MV=PQ misses the burn/issuance mechanics that drove periods of net deflation when fees spiked. Any 2025 model needs that baked in.

DeFi yield filters: If fees don’t support emissions, the APY is likely a marketing expense. Metrics from DeFiLlama and protocol dashboards help you see when “TVL” is hot air.

BTC allocator playbook: The ETF channel means flows can be tracked via public data and fund reports—use that to gauge demand instead of only sentiment.

Who will get the most value now

This is your book if:

You come from stocks/bonds and want a sensible way to approach BTC/ETH and a handful of higher-risk names.

You want to stop chasing hot narratives and start running a repeatable process: thesis → size → monitor → rebalance.

You like guardrails—checklists, buckets, rules—so one bad trade doesn’t hijack your future.

You’ll want supplements if:

You live in DeFi: you’ll need playbooks for liquidity, MEV, perps, and governance.

You build on L2s or evaluate them professionally: sequencer design, proofs, and bridging are table stakes now.

You manage staking at size: validator ops, client diversity, and restaking risk aren’t covered here.

I like to think of it this way: the book teaches you how to think in crypto; 2025 forces you to also learn where the risks hide. And that raises the obvious next question—if you’re picking just one or two books this year, which titles cover the gaps best and how does this one stack up on clarity, accuracy, and usefulness? Let’s sort that out next.

Pros, cons, and how it stacks up against other books

What it does best

If you crave signal over noise, this book brings three strengths I still lean on when markets get loud.

Clear taxonomy that stops category mistakes. Separating currency assets (BTC), platform assets (ETH), and application tokens sounds basic, but it’s a cheat code when you’re comparing potential returns and risks. Example: judging ETH’s fee-driven value accrual using the same lens as BTC’s store-of-value narrative leads to bad calls. Different jobs, different expectations, different risk budgets.

Valuation mindset you can actually practice. It pushes you to ask, “What drives demand, and what kills velocity?” That single question changes how you look at assets like stablecoins (high velocity, low value capture) versus BTC (lower velocity, stronger monetary premium). If you’ve ever wondered why some networks grow users yet don’t see price follow-through, you’ll appreciate this rigor.

Portfolio discipline so you stop letting the market trade you. Buckets, sizing, and rebalancing aren’t sexy—but they work. Academic work backs this up: the NBER paper “Risks and Returns of Cryptocurrency” (Liu & Tsyvinski, 2018) showed that a small, rules-based crypto sleeve improved portfolio efficiency during the study window. Bitwise’s research has shown similar results for 1–10% target weights with periodic rebalancing. Structure beats vibes.

“Frameworks beat headlines. Every. Single. Cycle.”

When the candle turns against you at 3 a.m., this mindset is what keeps you from nuking months of good decisions in a minute of panic.

Where it falls short

It’s not a 2025 playbook. Here’s where you’ll want to supplement.

Post-2020 mechanics are mostly missing. Rollups, restaking, MEV, and stablecoin market structure now shape value capture. For instance, on-chain “activity” moved to L2s, which distorts old ratios on L1s. If you lean on raw NVT today, you might underweight projects with activity migrating off-chain or overestimate value where volumes are noisy.

Some metrics feel too simplistic now. NVT can be gamed by wash volume or rendered less informative by entity clustering issues. Modern, entity-adjusted data (Glassnode, Coin Metrics network-adjusted metrics) gives cleaner reads on real demand versus inorganic churn. Treat the book’s metrics as a starting grid, not the finish line.

Light on hands-on tooling. No walkthroughs on tools we consider standard today: Dune dashboards, TokenUnlocks, DeFiLlama, Etherscan labels, Mempool.space, or liquidity routing on DEXs. If you want to hit the ground running on on-chain due diligence, you’ll need a separate toolkit.

How it compares to other reads

If you’re picking one book for investing frameworks—not macro theory or dev-level details—this is the one I’d reach for first.

The Bitcoin Standard by Saifedean Ammous: a passionate macro and monetary history lens on BTC. Excellent for conviction; light on multi-asset portfolio construction. If you want to weigh BTC against ETH or an app token, Cryptoassets is more actionable.

Mastering Bitcoin by Andreas M. Antonopoulos: the go-to technical reference for how Bitcoin works. It’ll make you a better builder or auditor, not necessarily a better allocator.

The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains by Antony Lewis: a clean, broad introduction. Great for orientation; less muscle for valuation and sizing decisions.

The Cryptopians by Laura Shin: gripping narrative history of Ethereum’s early years and the ICO era. You’ll get context and war stories, not a research or allocation framework.

Quick real-world scenario: you’re building a three-asset sleeve—BTC (monetary), ETH (platform with fee burn and staking), and a high-beta app token. Cryptoassets nudges you to set distinct theses and risk caps for each bucket. That’s a world apart from treating them all as “just crypto” and letting correlation fool you into overexposure.

Audiobook vs print

Both formats work, but they serve different jobs.

Audiobook: Perfect for commutes or workouts—absorb the mental models and the investor mindset on the go. I bookmark chapters on valuation and portfolio rules to revisit with notes later. If you learn best by listening, you’ll finish it fast and remember the big ideas.

Print/ebook: Better if you want to study the charts, highlight definitions, and build your own worksheets (e.g., playing with velocity assumptions or rebalancing intervals in a spreadsheet). The ability to search and annotate pays off when you’re creating your personal playbook.

Want to turn those strengths into a step-by-step system you can use tonight—research workflow, allocation rules, and a no-BS due diligence checklist? Keep going. Which piece do you need most right now: a map for research or rules for sizing?

Practical takeaways you can apply right after reading

I’m all about turning ideas into moves you can actually make. Here’s the exact, no-nonsense workflow I use to research, size, and protect positions—so you can stop guessing and start operating like an investor.

Set up a research workflow

Goal: keep a pulse on narratives and data without getting overwhelmed.

Create a weekly cadence:
- Monday: update your watchlist (3–8 assets max) and skim major governance forums and dev updates.
- Midweek: check on-chain usage: fees, active addresses, unique fee payers, and liquidity depth.
- Friday: refresh your “living thesis” for each asset (what changed, what didn’t, what to watch next).

Read primary sources: whitepapers, docs, GitHub commits/releases, and improvement proposals (BIPs/EIPs/NEPs). Secondary commentary is nice; primary is truth.

Track metrics that actually matter:
- Economic: fees generated, revenue to token holders (burns, buybacks, or distributions), issuance/inflation, net supply change.
- Usage quality: unique fee payers, retention (7/30/90-day), cohort behavior, real transactions vs spam.
- Security/decentralization: validator count and concentration, client diversity, sequencer neutrality, upgrade keys and multisigs.
- Liquidity: CEX depth, DEX pool depth, slippage for a $10k trade, borrow/lend liquidity, perps open interest vs float.

Keep a 1-page thesis per asset:
- Problem, solution, moat
- Demand sinks: why the token must be bought/held/used
- Top 3 risks and kill criteria (objective triggers to exit)
- Key catalysts with dates
- Position plan: target size, adds, trims, and review date

Example: When I tracked a high-throughput L1 in 2024, I monitored fee payers concentration (top address share), validator churn, and client diversity. My kill switch wasn’t price—it was if the top 3 fee payers crossed 60% for two weeks or if validator Nakamoto coefficient fell below 20. That kept me focused on fundamentals, not headlines.

Why this works: multiple studies on crypto markets show that usage, attention, and momentum influence returns, while naive activity metrics can be gamed. Focusing on economic throughput (fees) and retention filters noise better than raw transaction counts.

Build a starter allocation plan

Write the rules before you buy. That one habit saves more bankrolls than any hot tip.

Define your crypto sleeve: e.g., 5–15% of liquid net worth. Small enough to sleep, big enough to matter.

Use risk buckets:
- Core (low-ish risk): 50–70% of the sleeve. Assets with durable network effects and deep liquidity.
- Growth: 20–40%. L2s, major infra, established DeFi with revenue.
- Speculative: 0–10%. Early-stage tokens with binary catalysts.

Position sizing: set hard caps.
- Core names: up to 3–5% of total net worth (if that fits your risk tolerance).
- Growth: 0.5–2% each.
- Speculative: 0.25–1% each. If it can 5x or go to zero, size like it.

Entry plan: dollar-cost average over 4–12 weeks; predefine add/trim points based on fundamentals (not just price).

Rebalancing: quarterly or when a bucket drifts >20% from target. Trim winners into rules, not feelings.

Kill criteria: governance capture, tokenomics rug (surprise emissions), critical exploit without credible mitigation, or revenue collapsing for two consecutive quarters.

Quick math example: If your crypto sleeve is 10% of a $100k portfolio ($10k), a 60/30/10 split means $6k core, $3k growth, $1k speculative. A single speculative bet at 1% is $1k max. That’s how you survive a bad quarter and stay in the game for the good ones.

Due diligence checklist for new tokens

Think “who gets paid, how, and when,” then “how can this break?”

Team and incentives: real identities or credible pseudonyms, prior shipping track record, skin in the game. Check repo history and cadence.

Token utility + demand sinks: fees paid in token, staking to access scarce resources, burns/buybacks tied to real revenue, collateral utility that scales with adoption.

Supply schedule: precise emissions, cliffs, and vesting. Big unlocks within 3–6 months = supply overhang risk. Note who’s unlocking (team, VCs, community) and expected behavior.

Users vs TVL games: measure unique fee payers and retention—not just TVL or transactions. Incentive farming without stickiness is a sugar high.

Liquidity and market structure: circulating float vs FDV, top-10 holder concentration, CEX/DEX depth, slippage on a $10k order, borrow rates and short interest.

Tech and security: audits (who and when), bug bounties, formal verification, admin keys and time-locks, upgradeability risks, multisig signers and thresholds.

Regulatory flags: promises of profit, revenue share optics, geofencing, sanctions exposure, KYC obligations. If the value prop is “number go up because number go up,” that’s a red flag.

Governance health: voter turnout, quorum reliability, top holders’ control, history of passing/implementing hard proposals.

Catalysts with dates: mainnet, tokenomics revision, L2 sequencer decentralization, major integrations, fee-switch activation. No dated roadmaps = weak conviction.

How I score it: I assign Pass / Caution / Fail on each category. Two Fails (e.g., unlock cliff + no audits) = no position, regardless of hype. It’s amazing how many regrets this simple rule avoids.

Security checklist

Assume you’re a target and act like it. Most “I got hacked” stories are really process failures.

Wallet hygiene: hardware wallet for cold storage; separate hot/warm/cold wallets. Use a dedicated email + password manager. Enable 2FA via app or hardware key (never SMS).

Allowlists and delays: set withdrawal allowlists and 24–48h delays on exchanges where possible. Use anti-phishing codes.

Approve less, revoke often: set custom spending caps on approvals; run monthly approval reviews. Test with a $5–$20 transaction first.

Seed safety: write it by hand (no photos), consider steel backup, store in two locations; think about Shamir backups if large balances. Never type a seed on an online device.

Device discipline: keep your cold machine clean (no browser extensions), update firmware, and use a burner device when traveling.

Tx confirmation checklist: confirm the spender and function you’re signing, not just the site name. If it’s unreadable, pause and simulate elsewhere first.

Incident plan: pre-list who you’ll contact and what you’ll freeze if something goes wrong. Time matters.

Independent industry reports consistently show that billions are lost yearly to exploits and phishing, with a large share preventable via basic controls like hardware wallets, revoking approvals, and not reusing emails/passwords. Simple beats fancy when it comes to staying safe.

Mistakes this book helps you avoid

Buying without a thesis: if you can’t explain the demand sink and the top risk in two sentences, pass for now.

Mis-sizing positions: a 3% idea sized at 15% turns a thesis into a gamble.

Custody complacency: leaving size on hot wallets or exchanges without allowlists is asking for trouble.

Forgetting taxes: track cost basis, timestamps, and dispositions the moment you trade. Staking rewards and airdrops can be taxable as income in many places; get professional advice early, not on April 14.

Confusing activity with adoption: if fees and retention aren’t growing, the party might just be sponsored by emissions.

Want quick answers to the questions I get the most—like whether the valuation models still work in 2025 or if the audiobook is worth your time? I’m tackling those next in the FAQ. What’s the one thing you wish you knew before you bought your first crypto book?

FAQ: Your biggest questions about “Cryptoassets” answered

Is “Cryptoassets” still worth reading in 2025?

Yes. It gives you a clean framework for thinking about crypto as an investable asset class. That structure still holds up and helps you filter noise. I’d pair it with current sources for what’s changed since 2017—especially L2s, DeFi, NFTs, staking, and today’s regulatory map.

Example: the book’s focus on network effects and user adoption still maps well to real data today. Reports like the Electric Capital Developer Report and a16z State of Crypto show that developer activity and on-chain usage tend to lead value over time, which is exactly the mindset the book pushes.

Does it cover NFTs, DeFi, and staking?

Not with the depth you need in 2025. It predates Uniswap v3-style capital efficiency, staking/unstaking flows across PoS chains, L2 rollups, restaking, and NFT market mechanics.

What to add today: DEX liquidity concentration, protocol fee revenue quality, staking real yield (net of incentives), L2 settlement costs, and MEV impacts. Tools like Token Terminal, DeFiLlama, and Coin Metrics help here.

Is this book for beginners or advanced readers?

Beginner to intermediate. Newer investors will find it friendly and systematic. If you’re advanced and already working with on-chain analytics or building strategies, you’ll still appreciate the foundation but you’ll want to layer in more technical and on-chain sources.

Are the valuation strategies still valid?

They’re useful starting points, not final answers. The book’s MV=PQ and network value ideas help you think rigorously, but you should stress-test them with modern metrics:

Fees and sustainability: Persistent protocol fees and take rates (see Token Terminal) beat raw “activity” counts.

Quality of usage: Active addresses adjusted for bots/sybil, cohort retention, and real economic volume (Coin Metrics, Chainalysis).

Liquidity and market structure: Depth across CEX+DEX, slippage at size, and on-chain liquidity fragmentation.

Token design: Emissions vs. buybacks/burn, demand sinks, and lockups. ETH’s EIP-1559 burn is a live case of activity linking to supply.

Developer traction: Ecosystem momentum often precedes price. The Electric Capital report tracks monthly active developers and retention across ecosystems.

Bottom line: use the book’s models to frame questions, then validate with current on-chain and market data.

Is there a newer edition?

As of today, there isn’t a full second edition covering 2020–2025. For updated thinking, check the authors’ and Placeholder’s research notes and posts: Placeholder VC blog and Chris Burniske on X.

How long is the audiobook and is it good?

Plan for roughly 10–12 hours depending on the release. The narration is clear and easy to follow. It’s great for commutes; if you want to study charts and references, keep an ebook/print copy handy.

Where can I buy it and in what formats?

Audio, hardcover, paperback, and ebook are widely available. Here’s the audiobook on Amazon/Audible:

Cryptoassets (Audiobook) on Amazon

You’ll also find it on Apple Books, Google Play Books, and major retailers.

Final thoughts and what to do next

If you want a serious, non-hype starting point for crypto investing, this book earns its spot. Read it for the frameworks, then plug in 2025 realities: