Digital Assets Research
Providing institutional clarity and perspective to digital assets
Digital assets are evolving rapidly across public markets, private markets, and operational infrastructure, such as custody, trading platforms, and data analytics. As institutional adoption accelerates and regulatory frameworks continue to develop, asset owners require independent, research-driven insight to navigate this changing landscape.
Callan’s Digital Assets Research Team serves as a centralized resource focused on helping clients understand the implications of digital asset innovation. Developments in this space are increasingly relevant to fiduciaries, boards, and investment committees.
The Digital Assets Research Team helps frame common institutional investor questions in a practical, institutional context, creating the distinction between cryptocurrencies and the critical aspects of the technology impact
How does tokenization affect market structure and liquidity?
What are the operational and custody implications?
How should fiduciaries think about regulatory uncertainty?
Where are institutional use cases emerging and where are they not?
Our areas of focus
The Digital Assets Research Team builds upon the extensive research and dialogue already undertaken by the Implementation Solutions Group, expanding coverage to incorporate broader expertise across the digital assets ecosystem.
Tokenization & Market Structure
We monitor and analyze developments in:
- Tokenized assets (retail vehicles, equities, funds, cash)
- Custody, safekeeping, and asset servicing considerations
Regulatory & Policy Developments
Digital assets operate within evolving regulatory frameworks. We track and analyze:
- U.S. regulatory guidance, rulemaking, and interpretive statements
- Emerging policies affecting investment managers, custodians, and asset owners
Investment Products & Institutional Use Cases
We evaluate digital asset investment products and services through an institutional lens, including:
- Tokenized, exchange-traded, and digitally native products
- Adoption trends among asset managers, custodians, and other service providers
What we provide our clients
Education and Dialogue
Primers, educational sessions, and workshops for boards and committees
Industry Perspective
Analysis of evolving market ecosystem and structure
Due Diligence Services
Independent evaluation of service provider capabilities, platforms, and fees
Research Café: Blockchain
This 30-minute session features Alvaro Vega and Gwen Lohmann, CFA, discussing blockchain technology. They explore the current state of blockchain implementation in institutional investing, with particular focus on how blockchain and distributed ledger technology could improve efficiency, transparency, and transaction processing across private and public markets.
Drawing on insights from industry research and perspectives from Callan’s Digital Assets Research Team, this discussion will examine how this emerging technology may alter custody, settlement, liquidity, and operational workflows. Most importantly, we will address the practical considerations for institutional investors: what developments to monitor, where risks may emerge, and how organizations should be preparing today.
Read our research about digital assets and their underlying technology here.