A few weeks ago, I went off to the races. Not the ones you might know, at Ascot or Churchill Downs. Instead, I signed up at Zed Run, an online horseracing platform, where I discovered just how easy it is to buy cryptocurrencies and crypto assets — and just how hard it is to get out.

I watched a few races on my computer to warm up. A dozen glistening equine avatars lined up at a neon starting gate and then — three, two, one — galloped down a space-age track, hooves pounding to techno music. No jockeys, no broken legs, just round-the-clock horseracing on the blockchain.

My first task was to create a virtual stable. I labelled mine “Life & Arts” and described it as helping to “provide essential news and analysis to ambitious individuals and companies around the world”. Then I signed up for an online auction called a “drop”, where I would bid for one of thousands of Zed Run horses, each unique in colour, name and bloodline.