S&P Dow Jones Launches 5 More Crypto Indexes; One Tracks 240 Coins

S&P Dow Jones Indices on Tuesday rolled out five new cryptocurrency index products, the first major expansion of its digital assets benchmarking tools since entering the market in May.

Headlining the tranche is a “broad digital market,” or BDM, index that includes over 240 coins, a press release said. “The new subindices also provide different slices and dices of the BDM by market cap so that investors can track different segments of the market,” an S&P spokesperson told CoinDesk.

It’s not exactly clear from which assets BDM and its subsets build their market “snapshot.”  

S&P’s website said the "index is meant to reflect a broad investable universe.” S&P’s crypto data partner Lukka did not immediately respond to CoinDesk. HXRO is the 240th-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, according to CoinGecko, though it’s unclear if S&P’s selection criteria is based on size.

The products’ “snapshot” perspective signals Wall Street’s desire to tame the Wild West-esque crypto markets into a more digestible form. Like S&P’s first three crypto indices, these newcomers use points, not prices in showing market performance. 

S&P spokesman Ray McConville previously told CoinDesk that this methodology better conveys asset appreciation over time. A July 2021 methodology document describes S&P’s mathematical process for calculating index points.

The new indexes are as follows: Broad Digital Market, Crypto LargeCap, BDM Ex-MegaCap (BDM without bitcoin and ether), BDM Ex-LargeCap (BDM without the Large Caps) and Crypto LargeCap Ex-MegaCap.

Peter Roffman, the innovation head for S&P Dow Jones Indices, hinted in a press statement that more crypto market indices are in the works.

“We look forward to further expanding our new family of Digital Market Indices and bringing much needed transparency to this exciting market,” Roffman said.