A Journey from TradFi to Crypto: Becoming a Crypto Analyst

Maartje BusJun 23, 2021 ⋅ 5 min read

TL;DR: This is a call to all passionate researchers, analysts, and writers to join a global community of contributors that will build the next generation of crypto research. As part of Messari Hub, you will have the opportunity to claim research bounties and be paid for each contribution. There is no full-time commitment, and the program is open to professionals from all walks of life. Replay our informational webinar that took place on June 30th.

“Welcome to Equity Capital Markets,” Ed said in a momentous voice. It was 2 am on a Saturday night and we had just finished a monster 100-page pitch deck. It was the year 2000, and I counted myself amongst the “lucky” ones that made it into Salomon Smith Barney’s analyst program.

I saw little daylight over the next five years, racking up 80-100 hour workweeks. I loved the fast-paced, intellectually challenging work environment it gave me. I also hated it because I felt there was little purpose to my work. Most people just seemed to care about the money, power, status, and of course, winning.

Over the next decade, I set out on a mission to find more purpose in the fast-paced world of financial markets. This mission brought me from London to the emerging capital markets of Asia, into FinTech, and finally in 2018 to crypto. In crypto, I saw an opportunity to help build a new financial system. Crypto was leveling the playing field; in society, business, and financial markets. To me, it was the antidote to the “winner takes all” mentality found so prevalently on Wall Street.

From Wall Street to Crypto

After finally taking the full-time plunge into crypto in 2018, I still wasn’t feeling I was making the impact I had imagined all those years ago. I started thinking about other ways to contribute to the ecosystem. I put my two-year-old curated crypto newsletter on Substack and began to write more about the ecosystem advances. Then Ryan Selkis, one of my crypto heroes, sent out a call for aspiring crypto analysts to apply to the Messari Hub Analyst Program.

I felt a sudden rush of blood to my head. Were the stars finally aligning? Was this the sign I had been waiting for? The opportunity seemed to offer a perfect outlet for my desire to contribute to the ecosystem through my many years of experience in markets, fintech, and crypto.

I decided to take the leap and reached out to Ryan. This ultimately led to me taking on the role of General Manager of Messari Hub, providing analysts around the world with the opportunity to contribute to the crypto ecosystem as contracting analysts.

What is Messari Hub?

At Messari we strive to provide people, just like me, with an outlet to contribute to the crypto ecosystem by creating high-quality, independent research. The Hub provides qualified contributing analysts the opportunity to write crypto research through a community-driven marketplace that connects contributing analysts to crypto organizations looking to fund independent crypto research. Close to 100 analysts are already onboarded to Hub. Many of these have contributed research, either through Hub or its predecessor, the Messari community analysts program.

Why Hub?

As crypto adoption grows, so does the demand for trusted research that helps drive informed decision making and investment by ecosystem participants. However, an army of analysts is needed to cover every corner of the industry. The Hub enables the production of high-quality independent research at scale.

Who is Hub looking for?

We are looking for people at all stages in their careers who are obsessed with crypto and looking to make their mark. Whether you are a student dreaming to be the next Ryan Watkins, an investment banker with a craving, a college professor, an emerging crypto hedge fund trader, an analyst dreaming of a freelance career, or someone stuck in a boring corporate job looking to break into crypto, we are interested in hearing from you.

What’s in it for you?

Messari Hub Analysts have the chance to contribute research to the broader crypto ecosystem. Through Hub, you can build your personal brand and reputation as a crypto contributor by claiming bounties to write independent research about some of the industry’s leading projects, all on your own schedule.

The Hub provides a launchpad for analysts from around the world, in various stages of their careers, with a variety of ambitions and end goals.

Why Messari?

Messari brings transparency to the cryptoeconomy. We want to help investors, regulators, and the public make sense of this revolutionary new asset class, and are building data tools that will drive informed decision making and investment.

Research produced by our internal team of analysts is amongst the most trusted and well-regarded in the industry. We produce new content at the cutting edge of crypto on a daily basis. We distribute it to 100s of thousands every day through our daily newsletter and high profile corporate social media accounts followed by the who’s who in crypto.

Hub is powered by Messari’s trusted brand and distribution platform, and so will your Hub contributed research.

If you need no more convincing, you can apply here. However, you may have further questions, about the time commitment, how Hub works on a day-to-day basis, what bounties we are talking about here, the audience reading your reports, success stories, the expectations, and more. Replay our June 30th webinar below to review common Q&A and get a larger overview of the program.

We can’t wait to hear from you and take crypto research to the moon!

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