Crypto 101: Essential Reading for the Law Firm Managing Partner

You’re at the top of your game, a leader of a top firm, you’re an expert. But there’s that one area where you need to catch up: cryptocurrency.

To accompany our article for firm leaders—Crypto: Everything the Law Firm Managing Partner Needs to Know—we’ve assembled some key articles to help you quickly come up to speed on the most consequential financial technology in years.

The three things you need to understand in order to form a baseline working knowledge of crypto are blockchain technology, the difference between cryptocurrency and other assets like nonfungible tokens, and the metaverse.

For a start, the essential question: What is a blockchain? In short, it’s a distributed, immutable ledger, usually decentralized, for recording transactions and keeping track of digital assets. Cryptocurrencies, decentralized finance and all the rest are built on the technology. This graphic explains how that works:

But the crypto universe is made up of a lot more than currencies. NFTS, or nonfungible tokens, are works of art or music or even an authenticity claim for sneakers that exist only in the digital world and are paid for with cryptocurrency. Other critical concepts include decentralized finance, the metaverse, nonfungible tokens, smart contracts, and more.

To get closer to the heart of the matter, explore these articles:

• What’s an NFT? It’s What Makes GIFs Worth Big Bucks
• The Metaverse: What Is It, Who’s In It and Why Does It Matter?
• Finance Without Financiers: Smart Contracts and DeFi
• Digital Currencies: Why Central Banks Got Serious
• What’s Crypto Lending? What Happened With Celsius?
• What Are Stablecoins? And Why Did TerraUSD Go So Wobbly?
• Crypto’s Energy Problem, And Why It’s So Hard to Fix

There’s a lot to digest, but half the battle is coming up to speed on crypto-speak. Check out Defining Our Terms, a handy podcast from Bloomberg News.

• What Are Buttcoin, Dex and WAGMI? A Crypto Glossary

And once you’re ready to get a little deeper in the weeds:

• Colossal Terra Crash Amplifies Calls to Open Stablecoin Books
• If a Crypto Exchange Goes Bankrupt, What Happens?: Explained
• Crypto Winter Triggers Calls for Clear Bankruptcy Guidelines
• Crypto Lawsuit Deluge Has Big Firms Scrambling to Keep Up
• Why Bot ‘Liquidations’ Are Adding to Crypto’s Turmoil
• Understanding Crypto Bridges and $1 Billion in Thefts

And on Capitol Hill:

• BGOV OnPoint: Sweeping Crypto Bill Kicks Off Negotiations
• ‘Much-Needed’ Crypto Bill Praised by Backers, Panned by Skeptics

To follow daily news on crypto, NFTs, and the metaverse, subscribe to Bloomberg Law’s daily Crypto newsletter below.