CME Launches Crypto Index That Excludes Bitcoin and Ether

CME Group made two multi-asset cryptocurrency benchmarks live Monday, adding both a broad-market gauge and a separate index designed to measure large crypto assets outside bitcoin and ether.

The more differentiated of the pair, the CME CF Emerging Crypto Index, excludes bitcoin and ether and tracks 10 assets: BNB, XRP, SOL, HYPE, LINK, Lumens, SUI, UNI, AVAX and AAVE. The companion CME CF Crypto Market Index holds the same 10 assets plus bitcoin and ether, according to CME’s index FAQ.

CME says each real-time version is calculated every second, 24 hours a day. Settlement variants are calculated once daily and published at 4 p.m. in London, New York and Singapore/Hong Kong.

The emerging index seeks the 10 largest qualifying assets outside bitcoin and ether. It uses free-float market-cap weighting, so assets with a larger market value of tokens available to trade exert more influence, and is reconstituted and rebalanced semiannually on the first business day of June and December.

The broad index targets 12 qualifying assets, with bitcoin and ether remaining eligible. It also uses free-float market-cap weighting and the same semiannual review schedule.

The emerging index’s methodology requires access to custody, excludes meme coins and applies a protocol-usage screen based on total value locked relative to full market capitalization.

At inception, assets that are not yet eligible under U.S. national stock exchange generic listing standards for crypto exchange-traded products, but are expected to comply within 30 days, can enter at a maximum combined weight of 10%. At subsequent scheduled reviews, constituents must conform to the prevailing standards, according to the methodology.

Benchmarks Built for Financial Products

The emerging index’s methodology says it was designed to be investible and usable for passive replication in funds and settlement of derivatives.

That product pathway has a recent CME precedent. The exchange launched Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures in June; those contracts financially settle to the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index, which tracks a separate basket of large, actively traded cryptocurrencies.

CME’s FAQ lists real-time values calculated every second and three regional settlement variants for each of the two new index families. CF Benchmarks says the emerging index can be licensed for a financial product, investment fund or derivative instrument. The broad index’s product page makes the same licensing offer.