Like a number of Bitcoin-related start-ups that have cropped up recently, Digital Asset is not so much interested in Bitcoin as a currency, but in the technology that makes Bitcoin possible. Underlying Bitcoin is the block chain, a decentralized ledger that permanently stores information and is driven by cryptography. Digital Asset intends to allow customers to use the block chain for financial transactions to cut costs and reduce the settlement time.

Ms. Masters said she had talks with the Federal Reserve, New York State’s Department of Financial Services and the Bank of England about Digital Asset to determine how regulated financial institutions like banks can use the start-up’s technology. There have also been discussions about whether the start-up itself should be regulated, because it may not fit the criteria for regulation that has been proposed by the Department of Financial Services. That proposal, which is currently waiting for public comment, specifies that companies involved in trading and holding Bitcoins will be regulated. Digital Asset, however, essentially intends to provide a network that makes trading easier, Ms. Masters said.

Although Digital Asset is focusing more on the block chain, the news that Ms. Masters, a star at JPMorgan, had joined a Bitcoin-related start-up sent ripples through the virtual currency industry. After all, many Bitcoin supporters have been waiting for someone as well known in the financial world as Ms. Masters to show an interest in the virtual currency.

And if anyone could bring legitimacy to Bitcoin and its technology, it might be Ms. Masters, who joined JPMorgan as a college intern about 30 years ago and, at 28, became the youngest managing director the bank had ever had. Later, she helped pioneer credit default swaps, the financial instruments that eventually helped fuel the mortgage crisis. Before leaving the bank last year, she had held a number of prominent roles, including chief financial officer of the investment bank and head of the commodities unit. She announced her intention to leave the bank last April after her commodities operations stopped performing up to expectations.

Since its creation in 2009, by a programmer or group of programmers going by the name of Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoin has become a technology and financial industry phenomenon. But most Bitcoin companies lack people with any previous financial experience.