Dogecoin is out; bitcoin diamond is in. So go the rules of the S&Pâs new benchmark for the crypto sector.
CoinDesk obtained a list of the 243 digital assets in the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market (BDM) Index. A cursory analysis found that Wall Streetâs latest attempt to measure returns from the âbroad investable universeâ ventured to cryptoâs outermost rings.Â
An eclectic mix of name-brand blockchains and lesser-known protocols are included in S&Pâs BDM. Weighted according to the index-makerâs rulebook, the coinsâ collective returns crunch down to a point-based performance figure. That figure hovered around 2,676 at press time, down 14% for the month of July.
For comparison, S&Pâs bitcoin tracker showed it down 450.86 points, or 11.5%, in the same time period.
BDM certainly featured bitcoin and its end-of-June market cap of over $650 billion. But the index, whose average market cap was $4.8 billion according to S&P, largely consisted of small- and mid-cap cryptos whose stories are unknown to the average banker.
One such token is skycoin, a $15 million small-cap with about $387,000 in trading volume. CoinGecko ranked it in the 660 neighborhood by valuation. In November 2018, now-deceased crypto iconoclast John McAfee had the coinâs logo tattooed on his back.Â
The index snubs some notable coins. XRP does not make the cut. Neither does monero or BSV.
That might be a result of S&Pâs inclusion policies. The committee overseeing BDM can nix a coin that âmay be an unregistered security,â that has âprivacy featuresâ or that faces âpotential market disruption,â according to governance documents.
But dogecoin, the bitcoin spin-off that best encapsulated the zany boom times of memecoin season, is nowhere on the list.
âItâs because they donât have a white paper,â a source familiar with the selection process told CoinDesk.