Nasdaq, CME Unite Crypto Indexes Underneath New Benchmark

Nasdaq and CME Group have unified their crypto indexing efforts underneath a single benchmark, reintroducing the Nasdaq Crypto Index because the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index.

Key Takeaways:

• Nasdaq and CME Group unified their crypto benchmarks to create a single, multi-asset index geared toward institutional traders.
• The Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index is designed to reflect conventional market requirements.
• The index helps a rising ecosystem of regulated merchandise.

The announcement deepens a partnership between the 2 market infrastructure suppliers that stretches again practically three many years, in keeping with Nasdaq.

The revamped index is designed to function a foundational benchmark for traders in search of publicity past single-asset crypto methods, as regulatory readability and institutional participation proceed to develop.

CME Says New Crypto Index Goals to Match Conventional Market Requirements

“This isn’t only a title change,” stated Giovanni Vicioso, government director of fairness and various merchandise at CME Group.

He described the index as a mix of two established market requirements supposed to ship governance and diversification akin to conventional asset courses.

The Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index tracks a basket of main digital belongings, together with Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano, and Avalanche.

Nasdaq stated the index is constructed to replicate the broader crypto market moderately than concentrating solely on Bitcoin, a shift that mirrors how traders method equities and different asset courses.

Sean Wasserman, head of index product administration at Nasdaq, stated traders are more and more gravitating towards index-based publicity because the crypto market grows extra advanced.

“We see the index-based method because the course traders are heading, past simply Bitcoin,” he stated, pointing to similarities with the evolution of fairness and commodity markets.

Governance and transparency are central to the index’s construction. The benchmark is calculated by CF Benchmarks and overseen by a joint governance committee, with eligibility guidelines, liquidity thresholds, and quarterly rebalancing outlined in a printed methodology.

Executives stated this framework is designed to align with institutional threat and compliance expectations.

The launch additionally builds on Nasdaq and CME Group’s lengthy historical past of collaboration, which started with Nasdaq-100 futures within the Nineties and later expanded into one of many world’s most liquid fairness index derivatives ecosystems.

Earlier this yr, the 2 corporations prolonged their Nasdaq-100 licensing settlement for one more decade.

Past benchmarking, the index is anticipated to underpin a wider vary of regulated merchandise, together with exchange-traded funds and structured funding automobiles.

Nasdaq stated the index already helps licensed merchandise throughout the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, accounting for greater than $1 billion in belongings.

CME Group Posts Report Buying and selling Volumes in 2025

As reported, CME Group recorded its highest buying and selling exercise on file in 2025, with common every day quantity reaching 28.1 million contracts, a 6% improve from the prior yr.

The surge mirrored robust participation throughout rates of interest, equities, commodities, overseas alternate, and crypto derivatives as traders navigated shifting macroeconomic circumstances.

Exercise accelerated towards year-end, with fourth-quarter common every day quantity climbing to 27.4 million contracts and December posting its strongest efficiency on file.

CME stated demand was pushed by heightened use of hedging instruments amid altering rate of interest expectations, commodity worth swings, and continued progress in crypto derivatives.

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