S&P Dow Jones Indices is launching a digital currency index

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

The S&P Dow Jones Indices in collaboration with the digital currency solutions company Lukka will be launching a digital currency index in 2021.

“As the market for cryptocurrency assets has evolved in recent years, investor interest in benchmarking and index-based solutions based on crypto and blockchain assets has grown and reinforced the need for reliable pricing data,” says the official announcement.

The S&P DJI will be using data from Lukka to create the index, and the team at the S&P DJI believes that the introduction of the digital currency index will “make it easier for investors to access this emerging technology-driven asset class while potentially mitigating some of the common risks associated with this traditionally speculative market.”

Some believe that the creation of the digital currency index will allow asset-management firms to easily build digital currency-related investment vehicles–something that the digital currency industry has been anticipating for many years now. 

Why now?

For several years,  financial management companies have been trying to get a digital currency ETF listed on the US stock markets. But the S&P DJI has decided that now is the time to launch a digital currency index because of all of the buzz around the blockchain and digital currency industry.

There is a renewed interest in the digital currency markets at the moment, partially because the digital currency markets are at the beginning of a bubble, but also, because many individuals believe that governments around the world are going to have to print more money to provide relief to the damage done by the coronavirus. The individuals who believe inflation is on the way are investing in digital currencies because they can serve as a hedge against inflation, increasing in value as the value of the dollar goes down.

“For more than a century, S&P Dow Jones Indices has been a pioneer in creating innovative and relevant indices and benchmarks that reflect the global market’s ongoing growth and evolution,” said Peter Roffman, Global Head of Innovation and Strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices. “With digital assets such as cryptocurrencies becoming a rapidly emerging asset class, the time is right for independent, reliable, and user-friendly benchmarks.