S&P Dow Jones Launches Five New Crypto Indices

Data provider S&P Dow Jones Indices has added five new indices to its existing roster of crypto market benchmarks, per a press release.

The main event is the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market (BDM) Index—a way of tracking the overall health of the crypto market, derived from the performance of over 240 different coins.

The four other indices are essentially subsets of the Broad Digital Market Index: the LargeCap Index focuses on cryptocurrencies with "large" market capitalizations; the Ex-MegaCap Index incorporates all the data from the Broad Digital Market Index, excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum; the LargeCap Ex-MegaCap Index tracks data from the LargeCap set without Bitcoin and Ethereum; and Ex-LargeCap excludes the LargeCap set entirely.

S&P Dow Jones Indices is responsible for two of the most important stock market metrics—the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (usually just "the Dow"). The company first announced its entry into the crypto space late last year, in partnership with the blockchain data firm Lukka, and has since launched indices for Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the combined performance of the two. That it’s using the same points system for its crypto indices suggests it may be looking to attract retail investors.

And while its new Cryptocurrency BDM Index may or may not be a useful barometer for the performance of the entire crypto market, it will likely feel superfluous to some people, since crypto already has an unofficial macro barometer of its own: the price of Bitcoin.