2026 Digital Asset Securities Sector Review

By James B. Francis, CFA, Capital Markets; Peter Simcox, Senior Analyst; and Tamara Guy, Analyst

In October 2026, the CRB Monitor Securities Research team completed its review of its Digital Asset-linked Sector Classification System, the results of which are presented in this article. Throughout, DA stands for Digital Asset and DARB for Digital Asset-related Business.

The goal of this comprehensive sector review was, as always, to satisfy our clients’ demands for accuracy, completeness, timeliness, and relevance, as we endeavor to provide the best possible representation of the global digital asset ecosystem. This review also highlights the evolving nature of digital asset-related companies, as they navigate a complex and fast-changing business landscape. The results herein make a case not only for the essential nature of this data, but also for the need to research these companies’ operations on a regular basis.

This summary covers the review of the 25 sectors in the CRB Monitor digital asset universe. Of these, 18 were retained, 6 were removed, and 1 was renamed; in addition, 3 new sectors were added. In general, the sector removals were the result of consolidation: companies in retired sectors have been migrated to existing or newly created sectors rather than leaving the coverage universe.

The review approached the analysis from two directions: (1) at the sector level, where we validated the appropriateness and the definition of each sector; and (2) at the member level, where we validated each company in the database to ensure that it resides in the sector that best describes its place in the digital asset ecosystem. The results are summarized below.

Results of Review

Highlights

• New IT Services sector. Software Providers, Hardware Manufacturers, and Blockchain Developers have been combined into the newly added IT Services sector.
• Professional Services split three ways. Members have been moved to Financial Services/Fintech or to the new IT Services and Consulting Services sectors.
• Exchanges and Custody/Administration have been combined (name & membership change). Exchanges/Platforms has been renamed DA Exchanges & Custodians, and members of the (removed) Custody & Administration sector have moved into it.
• Trademark/Intellectual Property removed. Most of these companies have been migrated to the Issuer sector.
• New DA Treasury Companies sector. This sector covers companies whose digital asset holdings exceed 20% of their total market capitalization. Holders above that threshold have been migrated into this new sector.
• The Holders sector has narrowed. The sector remains, but is now defined as entities whose digital asset holdings are less than 20% of market capitalization. Holders above that threshold have been migrated to the new DA Treasury Companies sector.
• Unchanged sectors. Apart from Holders, the remaining 17 retained sectors, including Mining, Issuer, Financial Services/Fintech, Energy Providers, Pre-Acquisition SPAC, DA Futures, DA Options Based Strategy ETP, Fund of Funds, and all nine ETF/ETN/CEF fund categories, are kept as is.

Where Issuers Moved

The chart below traces the 860 issuers in the sectors affected by the review from their previous sector (left) to their sector after the review (right); 543 of them, about 63%, now sit in a different sector. The largest flows show the consolidation at work: the former Blockchain Developers, Software Providers and Hardware Manufacturers form the core of the new IT Services sector of 316 issuers, while 136 of the 313 Holders moved to DA Treasury Companies, leaving a narrower Holders sector of 167. Gray bands mark issuers that stayed in the same sector, and the 14 sectors listed at the bottom were retained with no change in membership.

Sector-by-Sector Results

Sectors are grouped by result: removed, renamed, new, then kept.

Mining Sector Transitions to AI

One important trend affecting sector classifications is the transition of several crypto mining companies toward artificial intelligence and high-performance computing infrastructure. These operators can leverage assets originally developed for crypto mining—including access to large amounts of power, industrial-scale facilities, cooling systems, and data-center expertise—to host AI workloads. Examples include TeraWulf, which began operating a small GPU system for generative AI applications in September 2023; Core Scientific, which signed major long-term AI/HPC hosting agreements with CoreWeave in June 2024; and IREN, whose AI Cloud Services business was generating a growing share of earnings by September 2024 after launching earlier that year. The shift has been encouraged by pressure on mining economics following the 2024 Bitcoin halving and by strong demand for AI computing capacity. Because companies are moving at different speeds—from limited diversification to substantial business-model changes—their primary operations and sector assignments require ongoing review. We plan to cover this trend in more detail in a future article.

Conclusion

The 2026 Digital Asset Securities Sector Review reflects a digital asset ecosystem that is maturing and consolidating, with participants increasingly difficult to separate from the broader technology, financial services, and infrastructure industries. Combining narrowly defined sectors into broader categories such as IT Services and Consulting Services gives a clearer picture of how these businesses actually operate today. Likewise, folding the former Custody & Administration sector into the renamed DA Exchanges & Custodians sector recognizes how closely the trading and safekeeping of digital assets are now linked, with many platforms offering both. The new DA Treasury Companies sector, with its 20% market-cap threshold, captures one of the most significant developments of the past year: companies holding digital assets as a central part of their balance-sheet strategy. Meanwhile, the move by operators in the Mining sector into AI and high-performance computing shows how quickly a company’s primary business can change. Taken together, these changes reinforce why a periodic sector review is essential: classifying digital asset-linked securities is not a one-time exercise. CRB Monitor will continue to track these companies and refine its sector framework as the landscape evolves, ensuring that clients receive data that is accurate, complete, timely, and relevant.