S&P and Pantera Launch Revenue-Screened Digital Asset Index

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, a benchmark for institutional investors seeking a more disciplined and structured approach to digital asset allocation, the index provider said in a press release published Tuesday.

The index screens for fundamentals rather than size or momentum. It "only includes tokens and companies that show real-world use and generate actual revenue," and, unlike many crypto indexes, excludes meme coins and Bitcoin, according to the release. S&P framed the approach as a rules-based method similar to traditional finance benchmarks.

The index launches with 18 constituents weighted by float-adjusted market cap, Pantera said in its July Blockchain Letter. Those constituents had over $3 billion of annualized revenue in the trailing two quarters, and include Hyperliquid, Solana, and Aave, the firm said.

Pantera modeled the screen on the S&P 500's financial viability criterion, which requires four consecutive quarters of positive GAAP earnings. The digital asset version requires consecutive quarters of positive protocol revenue subject to a minimum threshold, verified by onchain data from Artemis, an onchain data provider, plus confirmation that revenue accrues to tokenholders through buybacks, staking yields net of inflation, distributions, or tokenholder-controlled treasuries.

"S&P Dow Jones Indices helps investors cut through market noise with benchmarks you can trust," Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in the release. She said the index applies "the same standards in trusted benchmarks like the S&P 500" using a "fundamentals-driven, economics-based framework" powered by Artemis data.

Pantera, which describes itself as the first U.S. institutional crypto fund and manages over $3 billion across passive, hedge, and venture strategies, positioned the index as a foundation for future products. The firm said it is "beginning discussions with asset managers about creating ETFs and other products using this index and with financial data providers about adopting it as the industry's flagship benchmark." No tracking product has launched.

The launch follows other recent S&P crypto-indexing moves, including a combined cryptocurrency and crypto-stock index and a tokenized S&P 500 index fund with Centrifuge. The new index is distinct from those products.

Pantera's characterization of the index as measuring "real economic value" is the firm's own framing. Performance figures cited by Pantera predating the launch date are back-tested and, per the firm's disclosures, not indicative of future results.