Digital Assets

Understand digital assets.

What do you actually have when you hold a digital asset? One framework answers the question, for every holder and every practitioner, across nineteen jurisdictions.

Current to 1 July 2026: the Basel cryptoasset standard, the SEC's 2026 guidance and the European MiCA regulation, all now in force.

FOR THE HOLDER. Do you own the digital asset itself, hold title to a real asset behind it, or only a claim against an intermediary? The answer decides what you recover when an exchange or custodian fails.

FOR THE LAWYER. How ownership is determined, how the asset transfers, how a security interest is perfected over it, and what survives insolvency; with the obligations of issuers, custodians and the intermediaries dealing in digital assets.

FOR THE ACCOUNTANT. How each kind of digital asset is recognised, measured and presented in the financial statements, under US GAAP and under IFRS.

FOR THE FINANCIAL INSTITUTION. The market, those who serve it, and the capital cost of holding digital assets under the Basel standard.

FOR THE POLICYMAKER. A global blueprint for a digital asset regime built on internationally accepted best practices.

Ten categories of digital assets in five families, analysed across nineteen jurisdictions and tested against UNIDROIT, the Basel Committee, the FSB, the FATF and the SEC. Written by the architect of the Roatán International Financial Centre.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR. Jorge Constantino Colindres is an attorney at law and entrepreneur specialising in the design, deployment and operation of governance systems, market reforms and private capital investments. He led the development of the Roatán International Financial Centre, a common law financial hub in the Caribbean, which made the island into a thriving ecosystem for fiduciary services, digital payments, wealth management and financial technology. He is the Founding Partner of INERTIA Advisory LLC.