In 2009, there was one cryptocurrency: bitcoin.

Now there are more than 9,000 cryptocurrencies and many digital assets with other uses.

Visual Capitalist's Jenna Ross and Miranda Smith note that as the ecosystem becomes more complex, investors need more structure and clarity to make sense of how assets relate.

In this graphic from MSCI, we introduce a new classification framework known as Datonomy. It is the first in a two-part series on decoding digital assets.

MSCI collaborated with Coin Metrics and Goldman Sachs to develop the framework, which classifies digital assets according to what they are primarily used for. It is hierarchical with three levels of classifications: classes, sectors, and subsectors.

We show the first two levels in the table below, along with examples of each sector.

Let’s take a closer look at one sector within each class.

As the digital assets universe continues to expand and evolve, investors need a consistent way to analyze the market.

Datonomy and its related data analytics aim to help investors seeking to monitor market trends, analyze portfolio risk and return, and build new products.

Get insight on digital assets with MSCI’s data service, datonomy.