S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, a benchmark designed for institutional investors seeking a more disciplined and structured way to allocate to digital assets, according to a Tuesday press release from the index provider.
A fundamentals screen instead of size or momentum
The index uses a fundamentals-based screen rather than selecting constituents by market size or momentum. According to the release, it “only includes tokens and companies that show real-world use and generate actual revenue,” and excludes meme coins and Bitcoin, setting it apart from many existing crypto indexes. S&P described the methodology as a rules-based approach modeled on the way traditional finance benchmarks are built.
18 initial constituents and more than $3 billion in annualized revenue
Pantera said in its July Blockchain Letter that the index launches with 18 constituents weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization. The firm said those constituents generated more than $3 billion of annualized revenue across the trailing two quarters. Names included in the initial basket include Hyperliquid, Solana, and Aave.
Modeled on an S&P 500-style viability test
Pantera said the screening framework was modeled on the S&P 500’s financial viability requirement, which calls for four consecutive quarters of positive GAAP earnings.
The crypto version replaces that measure with consecutive quarters of positive protocol revenue above a minimum threshold. That revenue is verified with onchain data from Artemis, an onchain data provider. The methodology also requires confirmation that revenue accrues to tokenholders, whether through buybacks, staking yields net of inflation, distributions, or tokenholder-controlled treasuries.
How S&P and Pantera described the launch
“S&P Dow Jones Indices helps investors cut through market noise with benchmarks you can trust,” Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in the release. She said the index applies “the same standards in trusted benchmarks like the S&P 500” through a “fundamentals-driven, economics-based framework” powered by Artemis data.
Pantera presented the index as a foundation for future products. The firm, which describes itself as the first U.S. institutional crypto fund and says it manages more than $3 billion across passive, hedge, and venture strategies, said it is “beginning discussions with asset managers about creating ETFs and other products using this index and with financial data providers about adopting it as the industry’s flagship benchmark.” No tracking product has launched yet.
Separate from other recent S&P crypto index efforts
The launch comes after other recent crypto-indexing efforts from S&P, including a combined cryptocurrency and crypto-stock index and a tokenized S&P 500 index fund developed with Centrifuge. The new index is separate from those products.
Pantera’s framing and disclosure on performance data
Pantera’s description of the index as a measure of “real economic value” is the firm’s own framing. The firm also disclosed that any performance figures cited for periods before the launch date are back-tested and are not indicative of future results.