UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies
At UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies, we unite academia and industry to research, educate, and drive blockchain solutions for resilient socio-economic systems.
About
The UCL Centre for Blockchain Technologies (CBT) provides a cross-sectoral platform, which drives the adoption and integration of Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies into our socio-economic systems.
Founded in 2016, the centre has grown to become the largest by number of associates in the world. Currently, the CBT’s network comprises over 200 research and industry associates. More than two-thirds of these individuals are from non-UCL academic institutions and companies.
Research and Innovation
The centre focuses on both technical, socio-economic and policy research into DLT. As well as research, the centre runs executive education programmes both at UCL and across the world with local partners and has recently launched MOOCs.
The centre is also supported by various industry partners, including Ripple, Oracle, Fidelity, and State Street.
Selected Publications
Our research is published in leading journals and international conferences.
Hernandez, W., Tylinski, K., Moore, A., Roche, N., Vadgama, N., Treiblmaier, H., Shangguan, J., Tasca, P., & Xu, J. (2025). Evolution of ESG-focused DLT Research: An NLP Analysis of the Literature. Quantitative Science Studies. https://arxiv.org/abs/2308.12420
Luo, Y., Feng, Y., Xu, J., & Tasca, P. (2025). Piercing the Veil of TVL: DeFi Reappraised. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC). https://fc25.ifca.ai/preproceedings/94.pdf
Cruz, W. H., Dahi, F., Feng, Y., Xu, J., Malhotra, A., & Tasca, P. (2025). AMM-based DEX on the XRP Ledger. International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC). https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.13749
Ibañez, J. I., Bayer, C. N., Tasca, P., & Xu, J. (2025). Triple-Entry Accounting, Blockchain, and Next of Kin: Towards a Standardisation of Ledger Terminology. In Digital Assets: Pricing, Allocation and Regulation (pp. 198–226). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009362290.012
Liu, A., Chen, J., He, K., Du, R., Xu, J., Wu, C., Feng, Y., Li, T., & Ma, J. (2025). DynaShard: Secure and Adaptive Blockchain Sharding Protocol With Hybrid Consensus and Dynamic Shard Management. IEEE Internet of Things Journal, 12(5), 5462–5475. https://doi.org/10.1109/JIOT.2024.3490036
Xu, J., Feng, Y., Perez, D., & Livshits, B. (2025). Auto.gov: Learning-based Governance for Decentralized Finance (DeFi). IEEE Transactions on Services Computing, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/TSC.2025.3553700
Xu, T. A., Xu, J., & Lommers, K. (2025). DeFi versus TradFi Valuation: Using Multiples and Discounted Cash Flows. In R. Aggarwal & P. Tasca (Eds.), Digital Assets (pp. 44–68). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009362290.004
Erinle, Y., Feng, Y., Xu, J., Vadgama, N., & Tasca, P. (2024). Shared-Custodial Wallet for Multi-Party Crypto-Asset Management. Future Internet, 17(1), 7. https://doi.org/10.3390/fi17010007
Arora, S., Li, Y., Feng, Y., & Xu, J. (2024). SecPLF: Secure Protocols for Loanable Funds against Oracle Manipulation Attacks. 19th ACM Asia Conference on Computer and Communications Security, 12, 1394–1405. https://doi.org/10.1145/3634737.3637681
Xu, J., & Feng, Y. (2023). Reap the Harvest on Blockchain: A Survey of Yield Farming Protocols. IEEE Transactions on Network and Service Management, 20(1), 858–869. https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSM.2022.3222815
Ibañez, J. I., Bayer, C. N., Tasca, P., & Xu, J. (2023). REA, Triple-Entry Accounting and Blockchain: Converging Paths to Shared Ledger Systems. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 16(9), 382. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm16090382
Xu, T. A., & Xu, J. (2023). A Short Survey on Business Models of Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Protocols. International Conference on Financial Cryptography and Data Security (FC), 197–206. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-32415-4_13
Xu, J., Paruch, K., Cousaert, S., & Feng, Y. (2023). SoK: Decentralized Exchanges (DEX) with Automated Market Maker (AMM) Protocols. ACM Computing Surveys, 55(11), 1–50. https://doi.org/10.1145/3570639
Briola, A., Vidal-Tomás, D., Wang, Y., & Aste, T. (2023). Anatomy of a Stablecoin’s failure: The Terra-Luna case. Finance Research Letters, 51(103358). https://doi.org/10.1016/J.FRL.2022.103358
Di Antonio, G., Vinci, G. V., Pietronero, L., & Javarone, M. A. (2023). The rise of rationality in blockchain dynamics. New Journal of Physics, 25(123042). https://doi.org/10.1088/1367-2630/AD149A
Alberto Javarone, M., di Antonio, G., Valerio Vinci, G., Cristodaro, R., Tessone, C. J., & Pietronero, L. (2023). Disorder unleashes panic in bitcoin dynamics. Journal of Physics: Complexity, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.1088/2632-072X/AD00F7
Briola, A., & Aste, T. (2022). Dependency Structures in Cryptocurrency Market from High to Low Frequency. Entropy 2022, 24(1548). https://doi.org/10.3390/E24111548
Xu, J., & Vadgama, N. (2022). From Banks to DeFi: the Evolution of the Lending Market. In N. Vadgama, J. Xu, & P. Tasca (Eds.), Enabling the Internet of Value (pp. 53–66). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-78184-2_6
Cousaert, S., Xu, J., & Matsui, T. (2022). SoK: Yield Aggregators in DeFi. International Conference on Blockchain and Cryptocurrency (ICBC), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICBC54727.2022.9805523
Feng, Y., Xu, J., & Weymouth, L. (2022). University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI): Boosting blockchain education and research. IEEE Potentials, 41(6), 19–25. https://doi.org/10.1109/mpot.2022.3198929
Our People
| Executive Board: | |
| Prof Tomaso Aste | |
| Prof Daniel Alexander |
| Leadership Team: | |
| Scientific Director and Education Manager: | Prof Tomaso Aste |
| Executive Director and Research Manager: | Dr Jiahua Xu |
| Deputy Executive Director: | Dr Nikhil Vadgama |
| Community Manager: | Dr Carolyn Phelan |
| Affiliated Scholars: | |
| Dr David Vidal Thomas | |
| Prof Christopher D. Clack | |
| Dr Maria Del Rio-Chanona | |
| Dr Paolo Barucca | |
| Prof Philip Treleaven | |
| Prof Fabio Caccioli | |
| Dr Carlo Campajola |
| Advisor: |
| Dr Paolo Tasca |
| Operation Manager: |
| Alice Ng |
| PhD students and Research Assistant: |
| Honglin Fu |
| Yichen Luo |
| Hanze Guo |
| Tammy Wang |
| Walter Hernandez |
| Kamil Tyliński |
| Antonio Briola |
| Alice Ng |
