Crypto has matured faster than the frameworks used to understand it.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana are no longer speculative fringe bets. They are assets with distinct economic profiles, real network activity, and growing institutional attention. Yet 84% of the 350 US financial advisors surveyed by 21shares consider current digital asset education inadequate. Valuation sits at the center of that gap.
In a new research report, 21shares outlines a three-step framework for approaching digital asset valuation: one that starts with classification and applies the right tool to each asset type rather than forcing a single model across a diverse universe.
Not all digital assets value the same way
The first step is classification. A discounted cash flow model is the right tool for a stock. It is not the right tool for gold. And because Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana have fundamentally different economic structures, each requires a different approach.
Bitcoin generates no cash flows for the holder. That places it alongside gold in the store-of-value category, where production cost analysis and market-sizing frameworks provide the most useful reference points.
Ethereum and Solana are different. Both are proof-of-stake networks that process transactions, support decentralized applications, and generate real economic flows for validators. That makes discounted cash flow analysis applicable – the same tool used to value equities.
Get the classification wrong, and the valuation framework that follows is built on the wrong foundation.
