Blockchain and Digital Assets Fundamentals for Finance Teams Training Course

Course overview

Finance teams are increasingly asked to assess cryptocurrency payments, stablecoin settlement, tokenised funds, custody arrangements and blockchain-based records without a common framework for evaluating financial, operational and compliance implications. Decisions made without that framework can create exposure to volatile assets, incomplete audit trails, weak wallet controls, sanctions breaches and incorrect accounting treatment. This course gives finance professionals a practical basis for participating in digital-asset decisions, challenging proposals and defining the controls required before an initiative moves into production.

Participants examine how public and permissioned blockchains record transactions, how wallets and private keys determine control of assets, and how native cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, tokens and tokenised securities differ. They apply finance-focused methods to assess transaction flows, custody models, valuation inputs, liquidity, counterparty risk, accounting classification and reconciliation. The programme also addresses anti-money-laundering requirements, sanctions screening, the FATF Travel Rule, blockchain analytics and governance responsibilities. Participants learn to distinguish a technically possible use case from one that is financially viable, controllable and auditable.

Instruction combines worked transaction examples, blockchain explorer walkthroughs, control-design workshops and case studies involving treasury settlement, vendor payments and tokenised assets. Teams trace wallet-to-wallet transfers, identify evidence for reconciliations and build a structured risk-and-control assessment. Each participant leaves with a finance-team digital-assets adoption briefing pack: a use-case evaluation, transaction-flow map, control matrix, accounting and reporting considerations, and a 90-day action plan that can be adapted for their organisation.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Explain blockchain transaction validation, wallet ownership and private-key control using finance-relevant examples
• Differentiate cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, utility tokens, security tokens and tokenised real-world assets
• Map an end-to-end digital-asset transaction flow from trade initiation through settlement, custody and reconciliation
• Assess custody, counterparty, liquidity, market and operational risks using a digital-assets risk register
• Design wallet governance controls including approval thresholds, key management, segregation of duties and recovery procedures
• Apply accounting classification, valuation and impairment considerations to common digital-asset holdings and transactions
• Investigate blockchain transactions with Etherscan and document evidence for finance reconciliation and audit support
• Produce a digital-assets use-case assessment and control matrix for a proposed finance initiative

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Finance Managers — who must evaluate the control, reporting and resource implications of digital-asset initiatives
• Treasury Managers — who assess stablecoin settlement, liquidity, custody and counterparty exposure
• Financial Controllers — who need defensible accounting, reconciliation and close-process approaches for digital assets
• Risk and Compliance Managers — who must translate AML, sanctions and Travel Rule obligations into operating controls
• Internal Auditors — who review wallet governance, transaction evidence and digital-asset control design
• Finance Transformation Leads — who sponsor technology-enabled payment, settlement or tokenisation projects

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should be comfortable reading financial statements, following a transaction through a general ledger and discussing basic financial-control concepts such as authorisation, reconciliation and segregation of duties. Familiarity with treasury operations, payments, accounting policy or risk management is useful, but prior work with cryptocurrency is not required. Participants should be able to use a web browser and a spreadsheet for guided exercises. No coding, cryptography, trading experience, blockchain node operation or personal digital-asset wallet is required. Complete beginners should expect a structured introduction before applying the concepts to finance cases.

Training methodology

The instructor uses short, finance-led teaching segments followed by guided application. Participants inspect transactions in Etherscan, trace how wallet addresses, confirmations and transaction hashes become reconciliation evidence, and compare custody operating models. Case studies require groups to assess a stablecoin supplier-payment proposal and a tokenised-asset investment scenario using risk, accounting and control criteria. Workshops produce transaction-flow diagrams, wallet-control requirements and a risk-control matrix. The final session converts the work into a practical 90-day adoption or governance plan for each participant's organisation.

Course outline

Day 1: Blockchain architecture and digital-asset landscape

• Distributed ledgers, blocks, hashes and transaction validation
• Public, private and permissioned blockchain operating models
• Wallet addresses, private keys, seed phrases and signing authority
• Native cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and token classifications
• Tokenised funds, bonds and real-world assets
• Transaction finality, confirmations, fees and network congestion
• Finance use cases for payments, treasury, trade finance and asset servicing

Workshop: Participants map a proposed stablecoin supplier-payment process and identify the parties, wallets, records and finance touchpoints involved.

Day 2: Transaction operations, custody and reconciliation

• Wallet types: hot, cold, custodial and self-custodied arrangements
• Multi-signature wallets and multi-party computation custody models
• Private-key lifecycle management and recovery procedures
• On-chain transaction fields, hashes, gas fees and timestamps
• Etherscan transaction search and address activity review
• Custodian statements, blockchain records and general-ledger reconciliation
• Segregation of duties and approval thresholds for digital-asset transfers

Workshop: Using a supplied transaction dataset and Etherscan records, participants prepare a wallet-to-ledger reconciliation and list missing evidence.

Day 3: Risk, compliance and control design

• Market, liquidity, operational, cyber and counterparty risk categories
• Stablecoin reserve, de-pegging and redemption risk assessment
• AML typologies involving mixers, ransomware and high-risk addresses
• Sanctions screening and blockchain analytics escalation procedures
• FATF Travel Rule data requirements and counterparty information
• Control matrices for wallet creation, transfers, monitoring and incident response
• Third-party due diligence for exchanges, custodians and payment providers

Workshop: Teams build a risk register and control matrix for a treasury stablecoin settlement pilot, including control owners and evidence requirements.

Day 4: Accounting, valuation and financial reporting

• Digital-asset classification under applicable accounting-policy frameworks
• Initial recognition, transaction-cost treatment and subsequent measurement
• Fair value inputs, active markets and valuation-source governance
• Impairment indicators and disclosures for cryptoasset holdings
• Accounting for custodial assets, client assets and agency arrangements
• Revenue, settlement and foreign-exchange considerations for crypto payments
• Month-end close procedures, audit evidence and management reporting

Workshop: Participants work through journal-entry, valuation and disclosure issues for a company holding cryptocurrency and receiving stablecoin customer payments.

Day 5: Use-case evaluation and finance implementation planning

• Business-case criteria for digital-asset finance initiatives
• Cost, benefit and control comparison of stablecoin and bank-payment rails
• Tokenisation operating models and lifecycle events
• Data governance, record retention and audit-trail requirements
• Vendor selection criteria for custody, exchange and analytics providers
• Digital-assets governance committees and policy ownership
• Ninety-day implementation roadmap and decision gates

Workshop: Participants complete and present a digital-assets adoption briefing pack containing a use-case assessment, transaction-flow map, control matrix and 90-day action plan.

Tools & standards covered

Etherscan, MetaMask, Microsoft Excel, FATF Travel Rule

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions