S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched an 18-asset crypto index that excludes Bitcoin and ranks eligible blockchain networks based on protocol revenue generated over the previous two quarters.
Summary
- S&P and Pantera launched an 18-asset crypto index based on protocol revenue.
- Bitcoin and XRP did not qualify under the benchmark’s income-focused selection rules.
- Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON and Hyperliquid occupy the top five positions.
According to a joint announcement Of companies, the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index is designed to measure established network activity rather than relying solely on token prices or market capitalization. The benchmark may support investment products, institutional allocations and actively managed digital asset portfolios.
Bitcoin and XRP are the largest assets in the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index that failed to break into the new benchmark, S&P Dow Jones Indices wrote in an Indexology blog post. Its absence is due to the income requirements of the index rather than its market value, liquidity or name recognition.
S&P Dow Jones Indices CEO Kathy Clay told CNBC that Bitcoin did not qualify because it is not an income-generating protocol under the index’s rules.
“Bitcoin is not there because it is not actually one of those income generating protocols that we believe belongs in this index and meets all the criteria.”
Unlike smart contract platforms, Bitcoin rewards miners with newly issued coins and transaction fees for securing its network. S&P’s methodology, however, focuses on revenue tied to activity through protocols and applications, favoring blockchains that charge fees for transactions, transactions and other services.
Clay told CNBC that S&P wanted to apply the principles used in traditional stock indices to digital assets by measuring factors that are important to professional investors. The approach creates a benchmark focused on the economic activity of blockchain networks rather than the size of their tokens alone.
Protocol revenue determines which crypto assets qualify
According to the companies, drawn from the S&P Broad Cryptocurrency Digital Asset Index, the eligible universe must first meet the protocol’s minimum revenue, market capitalization and liquidity requirements. Assets that pass those screens are ranked by their total protocol revenue over the two most recent quarters.
The adjusted market capitalization then determines the weight of each qualifying asset. Under index rules, the largest component cannot exceed 35%, while other holdings are generally limited to 20%.
Quarterly rebalancing allows the benchmark to add, remove or resize its components as its income, liquidity and market value change. As a result, an asset’s position depends on the continued use of the network, as well as its ability to meet the trading requirements of the index.
Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON, and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token hold the five largest positions at launch, according to S&P’s Indexology publication. Each asset represents a network that collects revenue from transactions or applications that operate through its infrastructure.
In comparison, many crypto benchmarks give Bitcoin their highest allocation because they use market capitalization as the primary weighting measure. Bitcoin accounted for around 57% of the total cryptocurrency market when the index was introduced, according to data from CoinGecko cited by Investopedia.
The Nasdaq CME Crypto Index assigned Bitcoin a weighting of nearly 77%, while Ether had around 13%, Investopedia reported. The FTSE Digital Asset All Cap Index also placed about 75% of its weight in Bitcoin, showing how market capitalization-based methods can concentrate portfolios on the largest asset.
S&P’s new benchmark doesn’t completely remove market cap from the calculation. Instead, the methodology uses income to decide which assets qualify and how they are classified before the adjusted market value establishes their final weights.
Pantera Capital’s participation also connects the index to a cryptocurrency-focused investment manager that has backed blockchain projects and digital assets. Under the joint framework, S&P brings expertise in index construction and governance, while Pantera brings insights into blockchain networks and their economic models.
Fund providers are expanding crypto exposure across multiple assets
The income-based index follows the launch of the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index by S&P Dow Jones Indices in October 2025. That benchmark index combines 15 cryptocurrencies with 35 publicly traded companies involved in digital asset infrastructure and services, according to S&P’s index description.
Hashdex has also expanded index-based cryptocurrency investing through the US Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF. The manager says the fund uses eligibility checks covering market size, liquidity, custody and US regulatory requirements before assets can enter its benchmark index.
Franklin Templeton entered the category in February 2025 with its Franklin Crypto Index ETF, or EZPZ. At launch, the fund tracked Bitcoin and Ether via the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index, according to the company’s launch announcement.
Franklin subsequently expanded the fund’s underlying index to include XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, Stellar and Chainlink along with Bitcoin and Ether, according to the manager’s current product information. The additions show how rules-based crypto funds can change their holdings as more assets meet regulatory and investment requirements.
MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management took another route in April by introducing the Coinbase Store of Value Index. Its benchmark combines Bitcoin with tokenized gold and applies inverse volatility weighting, giving less weight to the asset that shows larger price swings.
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan predicted in December that crypto index funds would become important during 2026 because the market was becoming more complex and its use cases were multiplying. In a Bitwise investment memo, Hougan argued that diversified funds could help investors gain exposure without having to identify all the potential winners.
The S&P Pantera Index applies that idea of diversification to income-generating networks, leaving the market’s largest cryptocurrency out of the benchmark while giving leadership positions to blockchains with measurable fee activity.
