Grayscale, FTSE Russell Partner to Introduce Crypto Sector Index Series

Grayscale Investments (Grayscale), an American digital currency asset management company and subsidiary of Digital Currency Group (DCG), announced on Tuesday the introduce of five cryptocurrency industry indices in partnership with FTSE Russell.

The suite of new products, called the "FTSE-Grayscale Crypto Sector Index Series", reportedly tracks the performance of crypto assets across five distinct categories: currencies, smart contract platforms, financials, consumer and culture, and utilities and services.

Specifically, the cryptocurrencies list includes currencies like Bitcoin and Litecoin as a store of value and medium of exchange; smart contract projects such as Ethereum, Solana, and Polygon; tokens representing financial services such as Uniswap, Compound, and Curve; tokens representing art, gaming, and media assets such as NFT projects, and projects aimed at real-world applications such as Chainlink and Filecoin.

Inkoo Kang, ETFs Director at Grayscale, unveiled that "indices will use a square root of each cryptocurrency market capitalization so that the most capitalized ones, like Bitcoin, will not have an outsized effect on the whole group and investors have a more diverse exposure".

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals in Washington in August ruled that the SEC was wrong to reject Grayscale's proposed bitcoin ETF, in a case that has been closely watched by the industry which has been trying for a decade to advance such products. Earlier this month, people familiar with the matter said the US regulator would not appeal the court ruling.

While the ruling does not mean its ETF is approved, the decision along with a spate of filings by asset managers like BlackRock​ and Invesco​ for similar investment vehicles have boosted sentiment in the crypto markets.