Major Assets: What Each One Actually Does

Entry last verified August 2026. Descriptions cover design intent and observed usage. No price data, by policy.

Settlement and store of value

Bitcoin. A fixed-supply settlement network with deliberately conservative development. Optimised for durability and censorship resistance rather than expressiveness. Primary observed usage: long-term holding and large-value settlement.

General-purpose smart contract platforms

Ethereum. A programmable settlement layer. Since 2022 secured by proof of stake. Strategy is to handle settlement and data availability while transaction execution moves to rollups. Largest developer ecosystem and the largest share of value in contracts.

Solana. A high-throughput chain prioritising low latency and low fees, achieved through substantially higher node requirements. Primary observed usage: high-frequency trading applications and consumer payments.

Other layer 1 platforms. Several general-purpose chains occupy similar territory with different trade-offs between throughput, finality and node requirements. The differences that matter are the parameters rather than the branding.

Stablecoins

Fiat-backed stablecoins. Tokens redeemable for currency, backed by reserves held by an issuer. The largest are subject to regulatory frameworks requiring reserve composition rules and disclosure. Primary usage: trading collateral, cross-border transfer, and dollar access in markets with currency instability.

Crypto-collateralised stablecoins. Backed by over-collateralised crypto positions in smart contracts. Verifiable on-chain, capital inefficient by design.

Scaling networks

Optimistic rollups. Execute transactions off the main chain and post data back, with a challenge period during which fraud can be proven. Withdrawal to the base layer takes approximately seven days.

Zero-knowledge rollups. Post cryptographic proofs of correct execution rather than relying on a challenge period. Faster withdrawal, higher proving cost.

Both settle to Ethereum and inherit its security for data availability.

Infrastructure and application tokens

Oracle networks. Supply external data, primarily prices, to contracts. Critical infrastructure and a recurring attack surface.

Exchange tokens. Issued by trading venues, typically conferring fee discounts and other platform benefits. Their value is tied to the issuing company rather than to a protocol.

Governance tokens. Confer voting rights over a protocol’s parameters. Whether they confer economic rights varies and is frequently the most important unstated detail.

The question this entry is designed to answer

For any asset: what does it do, who uses it, and what would stop working if it disappeared.

Assets for which the third question has no answer are worth identifying as such. That is not a judgement about their price, which is set by a market. It is a statement about what the entry can and cannot describe.

Availability differs by jurisdiction and by venue. Which assets are listed for retail purchase in a given market is published by the platforms themselves, including venues where the asset is listed for retail purchase.