The Nasdaq Inventory Change and the Chicago Mercantile Change (CME) Group joined forces to unify their crypto indexes, rebranding the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) because the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index.
The NCI benchmark index contains Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), Solana (SOL), Chainlink (LINK), Cardano (ADA) and Avalanche (AVAX), spokespersons for Nasdaq confirmed to Cointelegraph.
Sean Wasserman, head of index product administration at Nasdaq, stated in Friday’s announcement:
“We see the index-based strategy because the path buyers are heading, past simply Bitcoin. That’s just like what we’ve seen in different asset courses, the place you’ve indexes which can be consultant of the broader market.”
The announcement comes amid an institutional rush into crypto, digital property, and blockchain expertise, as conventional monetary infrastructure integrates digital rails to organize for an internet-first financial system.
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The market is shifting to crypto index merchandise in response to rising complexity
Crypto index exchange-traded funds (ETFs), which monitor the costs of a basket of cryptocurrencies, will drive the subsequent wave of crypto adoption, in accordance with Will Peck, head of digital property at asset supervisor WisdomTree.
Crypto index merchandise take away the technical complexity of analyzing a broad vary of digital property, together with tokens throughout completely different sectors, making them best for passive buyers looking for crypto publicity, Peck informed Cointelegraph.
There have been 29.66 million cryptocurrencies listed on CoinMarketCap at time of writing, with extra tokens listed every day.
Matt Hougan, chief funding officer at Bitwise, shares the identical view and stated he was “most excited” for the expansion of crypto index merchandise in 2026.
The demand for these funding automobiles will likely be pushed by buyers looking for small, passive crypto allocations who can’t decide to deep evaluation on the continuously rising sector, Hougan stated.
“The market is getting extra complicated, and the use instances are multiplying,” Hougan stated in December
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