Breaking Into Crypto Accounting

How to Build a Career at the Intersection of Finance and Web3 From Breezing’s Perspective

Crypto accounting has moved from a niche role to a core function in Web3 startups, protocols, foundations, and crypto native businesses.

From what we see at Breezing, the gap is not accounting talent. It is people who understand accounting and crypto in practice.

Below is a practical checklist of what actually helps you break in.

1. Stop Positioning Yourself as Just an Accountant

Crypto teams look for finance operators, not back office processors.

Strong candidates demonstrate these traits

They are comfortable working with incomplete or messy data
They understand token flows, not just debits and credits
They can explain financial implications to founders and engineers
They think operationally, not only in terms of compliance

Position yourself as a crypto native finance operator.

2. Learn Crypto Accounting by Actually Doing the Work

Theory alone is not enough.

The strongest candidates almost always have at least one real crypto client, hands on exposure to wallets, tokens, and treasury activity, and experience documenting assumptions and judgment calls.

Get One Real Crypto Client Even Small

Aim for one engagement such as

A Web3 startup
A DAO or foundation
A DeFi protocol
A crypto native consultancy
A founder with active treasury wallets

This can be a few hours per week doing advisory bookkeeping, treasury support, wallet reconciliation, or historical cleanup.

What matters is exposure, not scale.

3. Combine Client Work With Real On Chain Usage

You need to use crypto yourself.

At a minimum you should

Create and manage a self custodial wallet
Buy tokens on an exchange
Send tokens between wallets and pay gas
Interact with basic dApps

Go further if you can by staking tokens and tracking rewards, providing liquidity to receive LP tokens, using lending, borrowing, and swaps, or experiencing approvals and failed transactions.

This teaches you why on chain data is messy, why timing and valuation matter, why cost basis often breaks, and why judgment is unavoidable.

From Breezing’s perspective this difference is immediately visible.

4. Take Serious Crypto Native Finance and Accounting Courses

Focus on courses that teach judgment, not definitions.

Good courses use real transaction flows, force you to document assumptions, and teach how to explain decisions to auditors and regulators.

Recommended options include

The goal is not certificates. It is defensible thinking.

5. Join Communities Where Crypto Finance Is Taken Seriously

Most roles come from networks, not job boards.

High signal communities focus on treasury operations, reporting challenges, audit readiness, tax interpretation, and tooling or process design.

Examples include

Your goal is credibility. Ask thoughtful questions, share anonymised learnings, and compare approaches rather than seeking certainty.

6. Attend Events With a Finance Mindset

Events matter if you use them correctly.

Focus on side events, small meetups, operator and CFO dinners, or tooling and infrastructure sessions.

Relevant events

Good opening questions include asking how they manage treasury today, where their reporting breaks down, or what auditors pushed back on.

7. Learn the Crypto Accounting Stack as a System

Tools matter but systems matter more.

You should understand why wallets are not accounting systems, why block explorers are not audit trails, why subledgers exist, and where automation stops and judgment starts.

Company level tools

Individual and tax tools

8. Go One Level Deeper on Token Mechanics

You should be able to reason about vesting versus lockups, founder price versus fair value, income versus liabilities versus equity, and why timing and context change outcomes.

Strong candidates focus on economic substance, not memorised rules.

9. Get Familiar With Treasury Management for Token Launches

Most crypto projects either have a token or plan to launch one.

You should understand multi wallet treasury setups, allocations, vesting, lockups, emissions, governance approvals, and multisig controls. You must also know how treasury actions affect accounting outcomes.

Treasury decisions often drive income recognition, liability creation, expense treatment, and disclosure requirements.

Comfort here makes you far more valuable to Web3 teams.

Final Thought From Breezing

Crypto accountants who progress fastest get real client exposure early, actively use crypto themselves, invest in credible finance led learning, build strong professional networks, and understand systems not just tools.

If you combine hands on work, on chain experience, good education, and the right communities, crypto accounting becomes one of the most leveraged career paths in modern finance.

From where we sit at Breezing that profile is still rare, and that is exactly where the opportunity is.

How to Break Into Crypto Accounting: A Web3 Career Guide