Nasdaq and CME Group create benchmark for institutional digital asset exposure

The Nasdaq Crypto™ Index just got a serious update, now called the Nasdaq CME Crypto™ Index, and Nasdaq and CME Group want it to be the go-to foundation for regulated crypto products like ETFs, structured funds, and other real investment tools.

According to a joint press release on Friday, this change is about turning crypto into something fund managers can actually use without having to cross their fingers.

“This is the combination of two gold standards to deliver the regulated diversification and foundational building block the market now demands,” said Giovanni Vicioso, who runs equity and alternative products at CME Group.

Sean Wasserman, who leads index product management at Nasdaq, said it’s happening because the rules around crypto are finally starting to make sense. “Now that we are starting to see regulatory clarity coming to the treatment of crypto assets, particularly in the U.S., the door has been opened for industry participants to bring to the crypto asset class the types of regulated investment solutions that investors rely on every day.”

Nasdaq and CME team up again after three decades of working together

Nasdaq and CME Group have been building markets together since the ’90s. They kicked things off with Nasdaq-100 Index futures in 1996, then brought in E-mini contracts by 1999. They’ve kept going since then. Just this year, they renewed their Nasdaq-100 license for another 10 years. This new crypto index builds right on top of that same playbook.

“This announcement reflects how Nasdaq and CME Group are looking to bring their collective experience in markets and indexing to the crypto asset class,” said Sean.

But they’re not doing it alone. CF Benchmarks is in charge of calculating the numbers, and the index is backed by vetted exchanges and custodians. A joint governance group watches over everything to make sure it meets today’s compliance standards. The whole methodology is public. That includes what goes in the index, what gets removed, and how often the list changes.

Index will be used to launch ETFs and structured crypto funds

Sean then compared the whole thing to how traditional indexes are used in other markets, meaning they’re never about one coin or one company but the entire market; every corner of it. That’s where this index is headed, according to him.

CME Group is backing this with its own track record. They launched the first regulated Bitcoin futures in 2017 and helped build a functioning price discovery setup for crypto. “Our crypto derivatives are what provide a regulated and liquid market for price discovery,” said Giovanni.

This index is already being used in real products. One of them is the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (ticker: NCIQ), which tracks multiple coins. It’s managed by Hashdex, a crypto asset firm with over $1 billion under management across the U.S., Europe, and Latin America.

“We’re really talking about establishing it as an asset class. Even a one to five percent allocation as part of a wider portfolio mix is a huge opportunity from an adoption standpoint,” Sean promised.

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