S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched a digital asset index that tracks blockchain networks and protocols based on protocol revenue, marking a break from crypto benchmarks built around market capitalization or token prices.
The index is modeled after the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index, but only includes assets that meet minimum thresholds for protocol revenue, market capitalization and liquidity. Eligible networks are then ranked based on overall protocol revenue over the previous two quarters and weighted based on adjusted market capitalization, with the largest stake capped at 35% and the remaining components generally capped at 20%. The index is rebalanced quarterly.
According to a announcement companies, the benchmark is intended for institutional allocation and can serve as the basis for investment products or as a benchmark for actively managed digital asset portfolios. S&P said the rules-based framework is designed to distinguish established blockchain activities from speculative exposure.
The index launched with 18 constituents, with Ether (ETH), BNB (BNB), Solana (SOL), TRON (TRX) and Hyperliquid (HYPE) as its five largest holdings, according to an indexology of the S&P Dow Jones indices. blog job. The blog identified Bitcoin (BTC) and XRP (XRP) as the largest non-constituents against the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index, reflecting the benchmark protocol’s revenue-based selection methodology.
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The launch also builds on the broader expansion of the S&P Dow Jones Indices into digital asset benchmarks. Last October, the index provider introduced the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, which combines 15 cryptocurrencies with 35 publicly traded companies related to the crypto ecosystem.
Source: Tron DAO
Asset managers expand their crypto index offerings
The debut follows a broader industry push to develop institutional-grade benchmarks for digital assets, as traditional financial firms expand their crypto offerings and tokenized assets gain traction.
Hashdex launched the Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF on February 14, 2025, the first multi-asset crypto spot exchange-traded fund in the United States. Franklin Templeton followed six days later with the Franklin Crypto Index ETF, a market-cap-weighted fund that tracks Bitcoin and Ether through the US CF Institutional Digital Asset Index.
The trend continued in April when MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management launched the Coinbase Store of Value Index, a benchmark combining Bitcoin and tokenized gold using an inverse volatility weighting model to provide diversified asset exposure.
In December, Matt Hougan, Bitwise’s chief investment officer, said “crypto index funds are going to be a big deal in 2026” as the market becomes more complex and investors seek broader exposure to digital assets. He argued that it was increasingly difficult to predict which blockchain networks would become winners in the long term, making diversified index products a practical way to gain market exposure.
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