A new cryptocurrency index from S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital is taking a distinctly Wall Street approach to digital assets—and that means leaving Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) out.
Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, told CNBC on Wednesday that the company is applying the same broad principles used in its equity benchmarks to digital assets. Operating history, revenue generation, liquidity and listing status are some key criteria for index inclusion.
Why Didn’t Bitcoin Make The Cut?
While Bitcoin met many of the index’s broader eligibility standards, Clay said it is not considered a revenue-generating protocol.
XRP (CRYPTO: XRP), another major cryptocurrency by market capitalization, also did not make the index, likely for the same reason, although Clay did not explicitly address its exclusion.
The benchmark focuses on networks that earn fees or other revenue through actual protocol usage.
Clay distinguished those economics from yield-bearing investments, saying the selected protocols generate utility-driven revenue from users interacting with their networks.
S&P developed the methodology alongside Pantera, one of the longest-running digital-asset investment firms, with data provided by blockchain analytics platform Artemis. The largest constituent cannot exceed 35% of the benchmark, while no other individual token can represent more than 20%.
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