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Digital Assets Indexes

Digital Assets FAQs

General

This FAQ represents a collection of questions our clients keep on asking. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have additional questions.

Why digital asset indexes?

Currently, digital asset markets are fragmented, difficult to monitor, and do not meet index industry standards; in other words, standard digital asset benchmarks are missing. The MarketVector digital asset benchmarks fill this gap and bring industry-standard quality, transparency, and investability to the digital asset market indexing.

How does MarketVector pick the top 5/10/25 digital assets?

Top digital asset are selected by size and liquidity (equally weighting both criteria) from a universe of the top 100 digital asset by size.

What are digital asset classifications?

MarketVector categorizes digital asset coins into distinct, non-overlapping categories that form the building blocks of a new crypto classification scheme. Categories capture the value and use case related to a coin. Using a qualitative process, each coin is categorized into one category. Coins may change categories over time and new categories may emerge. The “Leaders” investable category indexes capture the largest and most liquid coins within a category which are also supported by major US crypto exchanges & custodians.

Category Definition Examples
DeFi Financial services built on top of distributed networks with no central intermediaries Uniswap, Aave
Exchange Tokens owned and operated by a centralized cryptocurrency exchange Binance, Cronos
Infrastructure Applications A decentralized computer program designed to perform specific tasks Polygon, Chainlink
Media & Entertainment Used to reward users for content, games, gambling or social media Axie Infinity, Basic Attention Token
Payments Digital, non-stable money for use in a distributed network Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, wallet apps
Smart Contract Platforms Blockchain protocol designed to host variety of self-developed and 3rd party applications Ethereum, Cardano, Solana
Stablecoins Designed to minimize volatility by pegging to a more stable asset Tether, USDC
Store of value Designed to hold or increase purchasing power over time Bitcoin
Why does MarketVector not have indexes for all the digital asset categories?

Of the current categories identified, some are not, at present, suitable for building investable indexes:

  • Payments: this category includes meme coins such as Dogecoin and Shiba Inu, and prominent forks such as Bitcoin Cash and Bitcoin SV. While a “meme coin” category might emerge in future iterations, for now, MarketVector Indexes sees less demand among market participants for a category that includes both meme coins and prominent forks. If and as the digital assets market cap grows as we expect, investors should expect further sub-categorization of “Payments” etc.
  • Stablecoins: these coins aim to peg their value to another asset. While MarketVector Indexes believes market participants will find value in an index that tracks the yields on stablecoins, there is currently no use case for a stablecoin price index.
  • Store of Value: this category includes Bitcoin, wrapped Bitcoin and Bitcoin Gold. Bitcoin itself offers pure enough exposure to this category.
Why digital asset categories?

Categories allow investors to group similar digital assets into groups to analyze and proxy targeted exposures. They enable deeper analysis into peers and aggregated performance reviews, As the basis for investable indexes, they provide the underlying components to build an investment solution aimed at capturing the performance of the coins within the category. They allow users to measure, benchmark and capture the performance and characteristics of targeted categories. MarketVector categories will help make digital assets digestible to traditional finance investors while giving crypto-native funds additional benchmarking capabilities.

What’s your pricing data source?

Pricing is provided by CCData and DAR. The indexes use a special exchange liquidity-based pricing mechanism for each asset and each exchange to ensure fair price discovery and representation globally.

How trustworthy is the pricing data?

The pricing source is designed to be reliable in a market that is otherwise prone to DDOS attacks, hacking, and unstable technological and legal environment

From how many different exchanges do you collect data?

This is defined in the index guide and depends on CCData's and DAR's coverage.

When is the index calculated?

Indexes are calculated each 15 seconds.

Could indexes be "real time"?

They are real time.

Could an index be EUR/GBP/other hard currency based instead of USD?

Yes, the index could also be provided in any other currency; please let us know if we can fill any of your index needs.

How many digital asset are not included in the index.

Currently there are over 20,000 digital assets. We cover the top 100 in our core benchmark which represents over 75% of the total digital asset market's capitalization.

What happens if a particular digital asset gets delisted between re-balances?

Only in case a digital asset gets delisted at all exchanges, it will be removed from the index and be replaced by the top ranked non-component in the latest selection list, (except for the MarketVector™ Digital Assets 100 Index).

For what can the indexes be used?

Active and passive financial products, hedge funds, ETFs, ETNs, structured notes, derivatives, futures contracts, etc… The indexes can also be used to monitor markets.

Can an ETF or other products be designed around the indexes?

Yes. The methodology is set up to build a wide range of financial product based on the indexes. However, product design does not only depend on indexes but also depends on other factors such as regulation.

Are the indexes investable?

Yes, they are designed to be investable. Please see our index guide for more information.

What makes the indexes unique?

Diversification (components, selection and weighting scheme), liquidity (additions must trade >1mln USD per day) and valuation of constituents (liquidity-driven pricing from global exchanges.)

How well do indexes reflect the digital asset markets?

We cover the top digital assets by size and liquidity, ensuring a blue chip standard which is not only based on market capitalization, but also interest in respective digital assets.

Will the index be subject to any regulations or answerable to any regulatory authority?

Yes, as a European index provider, MarketVector is registered as a benchmark administrator, regulated in Germany by Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin). In addition, it has filed as a self-indexer with the SEC in the United States.

Is there such a thing as "fair value" for digital assets?

As digital assets trade 24/7, there is practically real time pricing provided at all digital asset exchanges. Using a combined price weight from multiple exchanges, our indexes are fair valued at all times.

How can I find out the value of the index?

The index value is disseminated via MarketVector's website and standard data providers. You may refer to the indexes through tickers and various standard identifiers such as ticker, ISIN, etc…

Have you "stress tested" the index?

Yes. In addition to backtesting, several selection and capping schemes were tested to ensure quality, robustness and investability.

What expertise does MarketVector have in the digital asset industry?

MarketVector has researchers who have been involved in the digital asset space for years.

Will MarketVector launch any other digital asset indexes?

MarketVector will continue to expand the existing family of digital assets under the expectation that our MarketVector Digital Asset indexes become the definitive benchmarks for the digital assets market. MarketVector categories will help make digital assets digestible to traditional finance investors while giving crypto-native funds additional benchmarking capabilities. We continue to invest significant resources to track the evolving digital assets ecosystem and build indexes that reflect this dynamic asset class.