By The Street Scout Team

Crypto has pushed traditional sell-side equity research to expand coverage of public proxies (Bitcoin treasury firms like MicroStrategy, exchanges like Coinbase, miners) and, to a lesser extent, dedicated digital-assets teams producing research for asset managers. Pure network/token coverage remains limited on the sell side and is more common at independents.

Notable bank and firm hires (past ~5 years)

• 2021: Morgan Stanley named Sheena Shah (ex-FX strategist) to lead a new crypto research team focused on digital assets’ impact on equities and fixed income.
• 2021: John Todaro joined Needham & Company from TradeBlock as senior/principal analyst for crypto assets and blockchain (later Managing Director; covers Coinbase and related names). Goldman’s Will Nance took lead payments/digital-assets research. Bank of America stood up a crypto coverage unit.
• 2022 onward: Multiple firms added mining/crypto equity analysts, including Lucas Pipes (B. Riley), Greg Lewis (BTIG), Joseph Vafi (Canaccord), and others at Cantor, H.C. Wainwright, Roth, and JPMorgan (Reginald Smith). Jefferies and Canaccord posted crypto equity research associate roles.
• 2025: Siebert Financial launched Digital Assets Research and hired Brian P. Vieten (from Needham; prior Cowen/Stifel) as Research Analyst covering crypto, blockchain, Web3, and related public companies.
• 2025–2026: Goldman Sachs and Jefferies posted dedicated equity-research associate roles for crypto/digital assets (within core equity research, not trading). Evercore ISI, Wedbush, and Chardan sought or added crypto/fintech/payments analysts. Fundstrat (independent, Tom Lee) continued hiring crypto research analysts for tokens and crypto-linked equities.

Most activity centers on equity coverage of listed crypto businesses and treasury proxies rather than direct protocol research. Institutional demand for structured analysis of these names has driven the hires.

Approximate hiring activity (notable dedicated crypto/digital-assets equity research roles, illustrative from public reports) Year Notable dedicated hires / team expansions 2021 4–6 (Morgan Stanley, Needham, Goldman, BofA) 2022 3–5 (Jefferies, Canaccord, mining desks) 2023–24 Limited new dedicated (focus on existing) 2025 2–4 (Siebert + others) 2026 3–5+ (Goldman, Jefferies postings + independents)

Totals remain modest versus overall equity research headcount declines; growth is concentrated in specialized crypto/fintech desks rather than broad new teams. Data drawn from public announcements and job postings; exact industry-wide counts are not comprehensively tracked.