Nasdaq and CME Combine Crypto Indexes to Establish a New Benchmark

Nasdaq and CME Combine Crypto Indexes to Establish a New Benchmark

Nasdaq and CME Group have come together to integrate their crypto indexing initiatives, unveiling the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index.

Key Takeaways:

Nasdaq and CME Group have merged their crypto benchmarks to create a unified, multi-asset index intended for institutional investors.
The Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index aims to align with traditional market standards.
This index fosters an expanding ecosystem of regulated financial products.

This collaboration strengthens a partnership between the two market infrastructure companies that has lasted nearly thirty years, as noted by Nasdaq.

The newly designed index acts as a core benchmark for investors looking for options beyond single-asset crypto strategies, especially as both regulatory clarity and institutional investment continue to grow.

CME Highlights Goals for New Crypto Index

“This is more than just a rebranding,” stated Giovanni Vicioso, executive director of equity and alternative products at CME Group.

He emphasized that the index merges two well-established market standards to provide governance and diversification akin to traditional asset classes.

The Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index encompasses a range of significant digital assets, such as Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano, and Avalanche.

Nasdaq stated that the index reflects the broader cryptocurrency market instead of focusing solely on Bitcoin, similar to how investors approach various equity and asset markets.

Sean Wasserman, head of index product management at Nasdaq, mentioned that investors are increasingly seeking index-based exposure as the cryptocurrency market becomes more intricate.

“We believe the future is in index-based strategies that extend beyond just Bitcoin,” he noted, reflecting on the evolution seen in equity and commodity markets.

Governance and Transparency in the New Structure

Governance and transparency are vital elements of the index’s design. The index is calculated by CF Benchmarks and supervised by a collaborative governance committee, which outlines eligibility criteria, liquidity thresholds, and performs quarterly rebalancing according to a published methodology.

Executives highlighted that this framework is tailored to meet institutional risk and compliance requirements.

The launch further develops the long-standing collaboration between Nasdaq and CME Group, which began with Nasdaq-100 futures in the 1990s, growing into one of the globe’s most liquid ecosystems for equity index derivatives.

Earlier this year, the two organizations renewed their Nasdaq-100 licensing agreement for another decade.

Beyond serving as a benchmark, the index is expected to be the foundation for a broader range of regulated products, including exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and structured investment vehicles.

Nasdaq reported that the index already supports licensed products in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, managing over $1 billion in assets.

CME Group Achieves Record Trading Volumes in 2025

As previously reported, CME Group experienced its highest trading volume ever in 2025, with the average daily volume reaching 28.1 million contracts—an impressive 6% rise from the previous year.

This increase resulted from strong participation across interest rates, equities, commodities, foreign exchange, and crypto derivatives as investors navigated fluctuating macroeconomic conditions.

Trading activity ramped up towards the end of the year, with the fourth quarter average daily volume climbing to 27.4 million contracts, making December the best-performing month on record for CME.

CME attributed this demand to the growing use of hedging tools in response to changing interest rate expectations, volatile commodity prices, and sustained growth in crypto derivatives.