The DTIF on Why DTIs Are the Future of Crypto Regulation

Digital Token Identifier Foundation’s (DTIF) Director of Regulatory Affairs, Rowan Varrall, shares his thoughts on the role of the Digital Token Identifier (DTI) as a foundational standard for transparency, interoperability, and regulatory compliance in crypto and digital-asset markets in a recent interview with 21 Analytics. 

As digital-asset markets continue to mature, the need for clear, standardised identifiers has become increasingly critical for market participants, regulators, and infrastructure providers alike. The DTI, an ISO standard designed specifically for crypto and digital assets, plays a foundational role in improving transparency, interoperability, and risk management across the ecosystem.

In this article, we speak with the DTIF’s Rowan Varrall about why the DTI standard was created, how it addresses the unique challenges of identifying digital assets, and the role it plays in supporting regulatory compliance and market integrity as global frameworks such as MiCA and the Travel Rule take effect.

Rowan Varrall supports the DTIF’s regulatory engagement and public policy objectives, advancing adoption across crypto and digital-asset markets. He serves as the Secretariat to the Product Advisory Committee, the core governance body that provides stewardship and oversight of DTI implementation. Rowan previously held roles at ICMA, UBS, and Macquarie Group, where he contributed to the development of debt capital market standards and OTC derivatives regulatory reporting.

Q: For those unfamiliar, what does the Digital Token Identifier Foundation (DTIF) do

We are the designated Registration Authority for the ISO digital token identifier standard. In practice, that means we operate the DTI framework: allocating DTIs, maintaining the DTI Registry, and working with the industry to ensure the standard remains relevant, accurate, and fit for purpose as markets evolve.

Q: What led to the creation of the DTIF and the DTI standard?

When organisations first started trying to capture and analyse data involving crypto assets, there was a quick realisation that three-letter currency codes like “BTC” or “XBT” were not fit for uniquely identifying hundreds or thousands of tokens.

Crypto assets also introduced new structural challenges. Tokens can be wrapped or bridged, forks can create distinct token pools, issuers may or may not be identifiable, and they are not issued by central banks. Existing identifiers were not designed to accommodate these characteristics, which ultimately led to the development of the DTI standard and the creation of the DTIF to support it.

Q: Why is a universal ISO standard for identifying crypto and digital assets necessary now?

Realistically, a standardised way to identify tokens is the first foundational step toward interoperability and transparency. For a market to truly scale, speaking the same language about what is being issued, offered, and transferred is essential.

We are in a period of rapidly increasing complexity in digital asset products, a growing number of market participants, and heightened interest from supervisors and regulators. Against that backdrop, having standardised identifiers is no longer optional — it is a prerequisite for orderly market growth.

Q: How does a DTI improve transparency and reduce operational or compliance risk for organisations?

These two outcomes go hand in hand. A DTI provides clarity on the precise characteristics of a token, which directly reduces ambiguity and risk. A couple of examples illustrate this well.

If you are involved in a transaction referencing “wBTC,” that alone is not enough. There are more than a dozen tokens using wBTC as a short code. Is it wBTC on Ethereum, Solana, or Avalanche? Each has different technical and counterparty risks. Without a DTI, it is very difficult to know exactly which exposure you have.

Another example is collateral management. Suppose you want to accept a tokenised money market fund as variation margin, but only if it is issued on a specific ledger. Verifying that the token represents that asset on the correct DLT network requires precision, which is provided by using ISINs and DTIs together.

Q: What impact do you expect widespread adoption of the DTI to have across the digital-asset ecosystem?

In the short term, the biggest impact will be improved data quality and comparability. Once tokens are consistently identified, firms can aggregate exposures, monitor risk, and report with far greater confidence. For market participants, it allows for clearer risk attribution — understanding not just that you hold “a token”, but exactly which asset, on which ledger, under which implementation.

Over time, DTIs become a key trust layer across crypto and digital-asset markets. They provide a reference that allows transactions and exposures to be linked consistently across trading venues, custodians, analytics platforms, and risk monitoring systems.

This supports reliable cross-venue aggregation, ledger-specific analysis, scalable regulatory reporting, and integration of digital assets into existing financial market data architectures. Ultimately, widespread DTI adoption helps digital-asset markets mature in much the same way that standard identifiers did for traditional financial markets.

Q: What does the adoption process look like for organisations that want to implement the DTI standard?

For retail users and smaller-scale consumers of DTI data, we offer a user-friendly interface that allows them to view and query the full database of assets, tokens, and ledgers where DTIs have already been allocated.

For larger-scale users, we provide a range of API connectivity options to integrate DTI data directly into internal systems.

For issuers or offerers looking to obtain DTIs for their token implementations, there is a simple online registration form. For high-volume users, we support bulk allocation today and will soon launch DTI allocation via API request. 

Q: How do DTIs support compliance with AML/CFT requirements or emerging global regulations such as MiCA, FATF guidance, or the Travel Rule?

DTIs provide a consistent and reliable way to identify tokens across DLT networks. This is essential for anyone who needs to record, track, analyse, or assess digital assets. For example, the DTI is the key cryptoasset identifier for order books, transparency reporting, record-keeping and white paper disclosures under MiCA.

DTIs naturally support a wide range of compliance and supervisory frameworks by enabling transparency, effective monitoring, and advancing regulatory objectives aimed at improving market integrity and stability.

Ultimately, widespread DTI adoption helps digital-asset markets mature in much the same way that standard identifiers did for traditional financial markets.

Why 21 Analytics Adopted the DTI Standard, ISO 24165

21 Analytics adopted the DTI Standard, ISO 24165, to support the industry’s regulatory needs, while reducing operational risk across the ecosystem. In fact, TRP, a protocol used within 21 Analytics’ Travel Rule solution, was the first Travel Rule protocol to successfully adopt the DTIF-managed standard. 

Lucas Betschart, 21 Analytics COO, explains: “As one of the key developers of TRP, it only made sense for us to push for the adoption of the DTIF’s ISO standard. 21 Analytics believes that this implementation will contribute favourably to the regulation of crypto assets and the global adoption of TRP, the open Travel Rule standard.”

Read: 21 Analytics Supports over 2800 Crypto Assets Leveraging DTI.

About The DTI Foundation

The DTI Foundation is a non-profit division of Etrading Software (ETS), a global regulatory data provider with a focus on solving market-wide problems by building market infrastructures for the new digital economy. 

The DTI Foundation’s mission is to provide the golden source reference data for the unique identification of digital tokens based on ISO’s new standard for digital assets, ISO 24165. The DTI Foundation has already issued ISO identification codes for over five thousand of the most commonly traded digital assets, with more codes being added each day. All commonly traded digital assets can be assigned ISO-standard DTI codes.

Find out more about the DTI Foundation.