S&P and Pantera exclude Bitcoin from new revenue-based crypto index

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital have launched an 18-asset crypto index that excludes Bitcoin and ranks eligible blockchain networks by the protocol revenue generated during the previous two quarters.

According to a joint announcement from the companies, the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index is designed to measure established network activity instead of relying only on token prices or market capitalization. The benchmark may support investment products, institutional allocations, and actively managed digital asset portfolios.

Bitcoin and XRP are the largest assets from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index that failed to enter the new benchmark, S&P Dow Jones Indices wrote in an Indexology blog post. Their absence comes from the index’s revenue requirements rather than their market value, liquidity, or name recognition.

S&P Dow Jones Indices CEO Kathy Clay told CNBC that Bitcoin did not qualify because it is not a revenue-generating protocol under the index’s rules.

“Bitcoin is not in there because it’s really not one of those revenue-generating protocols that we think belongs in this index and meets all of the criteria.”

Unlike smart-contract platforms, Bitcoin rewards miners with newly issued coins and transaction fees for securing its network. S&P’s methodology, however, focuses on revenue linked to activity across protocols and applications, which favors blockchains that collect fees from transactions, trading and other services.

Clay told CNBC that S&P wanted to apply principles used in traditional equity indexes to digital assets by measuring factors that matter to professional investors. The approach creates a benchmark centered on the economic activity of blockchain networks rather than the size of their tokens alone.

Protocol revenue determines which crypto assets qualify

Drawn from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index, the eligible universe must first pass minimum requirements for protocol revenue, market capitalization and liquidity, according to the companies. Assets that clear those screens are ranked by their total protocol revenue across the two most recent quarters.

Adjusted market capitalization then determines the weight of each qualifying asset. Under the index rules, the largest constituent cannot exceed 35%, while the other holdings are generally limited to 20%.

Quarterly rebalancing allows the benchmark to add, remove or resize constituents as their revenue, liquidity and market value change. As a result, an asset’s position depends on continued network use as well as its ability to meet the index’s trading requirements.

Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON and Hyperliquid’s HYPE token hold the five largest positions at launch, according to S&P’s Indexology post. Each asset represents a network that collects revenue from transactions or applications operating through its infrastructure.

By comparison, many crypto benchmarks give Bitcoin their largest allocation because they use market capitalization as the main weighting measure. Bitcoin represented about 57% of the total cryptocurrency market when the index was introduced, according to CoinGecko data cited by Investopedia.

The Nasdaq CME Crypto Index assigned Bitcoin a weighting of nearly 77%, while Ether held about 13%, Investopedia reported. The FTSE Digital Asset All Cap Index also placed roughly 75% of its weight in Bitcoin, showing how market-cap-based methods can concentrate portfolios in the largest asset.

S&P’s new benchmark does not remove market capitalization from the calculation completely. Instead, the methodology uses revenue to decide which assets qualify and how they rank before adjusted market value sets their final weights.

Pantera Capital’s participation also connects the index with a crypto-focused investment manager that has backed blockchain projects and digital assets. Under the joint framework, S&P provides its index construction and governance experience while Pantera contributes knowledge of blockchain networks and their economic models.

Fund providers are expanding multi-asset crypto exposure

The revenue-based index follows S&P Dow Jones Indices’ launch of the S&P Digital Markets 50 Index in October 2025. That benchmark combines 15 cryptocurrencies with 35 publicly traded companies involved in digital asset infrastructure and services, according to S&P’s index description.

Hashdex has also expanded index-based crypto investing through the Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF. The manager says the fund uses eligibility checks covering market size, liquidity, custody and U.S. regulatory requirements before assets can enter its benchmark.

Franklin Templeton entered the category in February 2025 with its Franklin Crypto Index ETF, or EZPZ. At launch, the fund tracked Bitcoin and Ether through the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index, according to the firm’s launch announcement.

Franklin later expanded the fund’s underlying index to include XRP, Solana, Dogecoin, Cardano, Stellar and Chainlink alongside Bitcoin and Ether, according to the manager’s current product information. The additions show how rules-based crypto funds can change their holdings when more assets meet regulatory and investment requirements.

MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management took another route in April by introducing the Coinbase Store of Value Index. Their benchmark combines Bitcoin with tokenized gold and applies inverse-volatility weighting, giving less weight to the asset showing higher price swings.

Bitwise chief investment officer Matt Hougan predicted in December that crypto index funds would become important during 2026 because the market was growing more complex and its use cases were multiplying. In a Bitwise investment memo, Hougan argued that diversified funds could help investors gain exposure without having to identify every eventual winner.

The S&P Pantera index applies that diversification idea to revenue-producing networks, leaving the market’s largest cryptocurrency outside the benchmark while giving leading positions to blockchains with measurable fee activity.