BIS Working Paper 1377, published on 15 September, examines measurement of cryptoasset and DeFi activity. Its authors show how data processing and blockchain architecture can mix technical movements with economic transactions. The findings call for careful interpretation of activity measures; the paper is research, not a new binding reporting standard.
Event / source publication date: 15 September 2026The following is Human Fintech’s analysis
Define the transaction an investor is buying into.
A payments pitch should identify its commercial unit before presenting total volume. A completed merchant order, an independent customer transfer and an internal treasury movement represent different activities. Combining them may produce an impressive number without establishing willingness to pay. Comparisons with card acquiring or bank transfers become useful only after the transaction definitions are aligned.
A practical diligence exercise follows a sample of customer instructions through processing records, the fee charged and final settlement. Mark retries, internal movements and cancellations separately. This is a proposed verification method, not an allegation about any provider. The aim is to establish which activity generates revenue and which activity merely supports the delivery of that service.
Build the margin from commercial records.
Once the unit is agreed, distinguish the customer fee from costs collected on behalf of others. Network charges passed through to a user can increase gross receipts without improving contribution. The model should make those flows visible, together with liquidity costs, exception handling and customer support. Otherwise the apparent scale of a business can obscure the economics of serving it.
Retention adds another necessary perspective. Does the customer return after the initial transfer, and does the relationship remain profitable when launch incentives disappear? Answering this requires records held by the provider, including contracts and customer accounts. A public ledger can corroborate aspects of activity, but it cannot by itself establish the full commercial relationship behind an address.
Require a repeatable measurement policy.
For each headline metric, document the definition, reporting period, data source, exclusions and calculation owner. Ask a second analyst to reproduce it from the same sample. A material difference should be resolved before the figure enters an investment model. That exercise creates a foundation for subsequent monitoring and prevents every reporting cycle from becoming a new negotiation over definitions.
For a provider operating across networks, test whether the same commercial event is counted consistently. Separately establish the contractual and legal conditions for serving each market; technical availability is not market authorisation. An investable operating case links verifiable customer demand, revenue per activity and delivery costs, while leaving an explicit record of assumptions that cannot yet be tested.
White Fintech.
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