The Evolution and Assessment of Digital Asset Risks - Digital Assets Week London 2025
At Digital Assets Week London 2025, Metrika's Senior Blockchain Analyst Jack Davies joined Cristiano Ventricelli and Vincent Gusdorf of Moody's Ratings for a panel on how traditional risk frameworks are being redefined for digital assets.
Watch the full discussion below, or read on for key takeaways.
Key Takeaways
1. The "Digital Wrapper" Requires New Assessment Layers
As Vincent explained, "a bond is a bond, and a fund is a fund," but digital assets add a technology-specific wrapper that introduces new risk dimensions. Moody's assesses this through four pillars:
- Platform resilience
- Smart contract security
- Legal representation
- Cyber risk.
Metrika also recently partnered with Chartis Research to develop Integrated Composability Risk (ICR), combining these technology factors with traditional market and credit risks to provide a comprehensive framework for institutional risk assessment.
2. Fragmentation Demands Real-Time Monitoring
With 100+ Layer-1 blockchains and countless Layer-2 solutions, traditional quarterly reviews are insufficient. Metrika monitors protocol network metrics, on-chain activity, and smart contract changes in real-time across hundreds of blockchains, critical capabilities as traditional backup mechanisms gradually disappear.
3. Systemic Risks Are Emerging
Vincent highlighted a crucial shift: digital asset risks are no longer contained. "At the time of Terra Luna, it remained a crypto thing… but right now, when we are looking at the stablecoin market, we’re talking about actors potentially having the possibility to destabilize the broader bond market."
Two major concerns:
- Settlement infrastructure: Stablecoins introduce credit risk into what was previously risk-free central bank money settlement
- Interconnection effects: Unlike isolated crypto events, failures could now trigger spillover effects across traditional markets
4. Beyond Current Regulation
While frameworks like MiCA address foundational questions, Jack emphasized the next frontier: "Financial institutions are beginning to engage with DeFi directly: accessing yield, interacting with on-chain repo agreements. These are very untested waters that will require entirely new ways to measure risk."
Building on Proven Collaboration
This discussion builds on Metrika's successful proof-of-concept with Moody's Ratings earlier in 2025, which demonstrated how digital asset risks can be quantified within traditional risk assessment systems through real-time monitoring at both protocol and asset levels.
As digital and traditional finance converge, effective risk assessment requires integrating financial analysis with specialized blockchain monitoring. At Metrika, we provide the real-time analytics institutions need to navigate this landscape with confidence.