S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital launched a digital asset index that tracks blockchain networks and protocols based mostly on protocol income, marking a departure from crypto benchmarks constructed round market capitalization or token costs.
The index attracts from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index however solely contains belongings that meet minimal thresholds for protocol income, market capitalization and liquidity. Eligible networks are then ranked by mixture protocol income over the earlier two quarters and weighted by adjusted market capitalization, with the most important holding capped at 35% and the remaining constituents typically capped at 20%. The index is rebalanced quarterly.
In accordance with an announcement from the businesses, the benchmark is meant for institutional allocation and will function the premise for funding merchandise or as a reference for actively managed digital asset portfolios. S&P stated the rules-based framework is designed to tell apart established blockchain exercise from speculative publicity.
The index launched with 18 constituents, with Ether (ETH), BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), TRON (TRX) and Hyperliquid (HYPE) as its 5 largest holdings, in keeping with an S&P Dow Jones Indices Indexology weblog put up. The weblog recognized Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (XRP) as the most important non-constituents in contrast with the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index, reflecting the benchmark’s protocol revenue-based choice methodology.
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The launch additionally builds on S&P Dow Jones Indices’ broader growth into digital asset benchmarks. Final October, the index supplier launched the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, which mixes 15 cryptocurrencies with 35 publicly traded corporations tied to the crypto ecosystem.
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Asset managers increase crypto index choices
The debut follows a broader trade push to develop institutional-grade benchmarks for digital belongings as conventional finance companies increase crypto choices and tokenized belongings acquire traction.
Hashdex launched the Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF on Feb. 14, 2025, the primary multi-asset spot crypto exchange-traded fund in america. Franklin Templeton adopted six days later with the Franklin Crypto Index ETF, a market capitalization-weighted fund monitoring Bitcoin and Ether by means of the US CF Institutional Digital Asset Index.
The development continued in April when MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Administration launched the Coinbase Retailer of Worth Index, a benchmark combining Bitcoin and tokenized gold utilizing an inverse-volatility weighting mannequin to offer diversified publicity to the belongings.
In December, Bitwise chief funding officer Matt Hougan stated “crypto index funds are going to be an enormous deal in 2026” because the market turns into extra complicated and buyers search broader publicity to digital belongings. He argued that predicting which blockchain networks would emerge as long-term winners was more and more tough, making diversified index merchandise a sensible solution to acquire market publicity.
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