Grayscale Investments® Unveils Grayscale® Crypto Sectors and Launches New Partnership with FTSE Russell to Introduce Crypto Sector Index Series

By: Grayscale Investments via GlobeNewswire

October 24, 2023 at 08:30 AM EDT

New framework organizes the broader crypto market into five distinct sectors, designed to help investors understand Grayscale’s specialized view of the asset class

Industry leaders in crypto asset management and indexing partner to create tools for tracking and evaluating the rapidly evolving crypto ecosystem

STAMFORD, Conn., Oct. 24, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Grayscale Investments®, the world’s largest crypto asset manager, today launched Grayscale® Crypto Sectors, a new framework designed to set the standard for organizing the crypto asset class, and announced a new partnership with FTSE Russell, an LSEG business and a leading global index provider, to introduce the FTSE Grayscale® Crypto Sector Index Series (“Crypto Sector Indices”), a comprehensive set of five distinct, rules-based indices capturing the investable crypto market of Grayscale Crypto Sectors.

“Investors have increasingly expressed interest in diversifying beyond crypto’s largest assets, Bitcoin and Ethereum, and many look to Grayscale to better understand this robust, evolving asset class,” said Grayscale Investments CEO Michael Sonnenshein. “Grayscale Crypto Sectors formalizes our specialized view of the crypto landscape, and we are thrilled to partner with FTSE Russell to make this framework actionable in the form of indices. Together, our brands will bring the rigor of traditional finance to crypto.”

The partnership between Grayscale Investments and FTSE Russell aims to help investors categorize and analyze the crypto ecosystem. Over time, various tools and structures will be created to monitor themes, risks, and opportunities of the asset class, advancing more informed investment decisions.

“We are delighted to announce our partnership with Grayscale,” said Fiona Bassett, CEO of FTSE Russell. “Trust in financial markets is earned through transparency and governance. With our shared expertise, we have created a sector defining approach to capture innovation that will enable improved decision-making in this growing asset class. This fundamental construct offers critical insight to help investors make decisions with clarity and conviction.”

There are five distinct Crypto Sector Indices: Currencies, Smart Contract Platforms, Financials, Consumer & Culture, and Utilities & Services. The Crypto Sector Indices includes coverage of over 150 protocols, and will be reassessed quarterly to reflect the dynamic nature of the crypto asset class.

The Crypto Sector Indices include:

FTSE Grayscale® Currencies Crypto Sector Index, which includes crypto assets that serve at least one of three fundamental roles – as a medium of exchange, store of value, and unit of account.
FTSE Grayscale® Smart Contract Platforms Crypto Sector Index, which includes crypto assets that serve as the baseline platforms, upon which self-executing contracts are developed and deployed.
FTSE Grayscale® Financials Crypto Sector Index, which includes crypto assets that seek to deliver financial transactions and services.
FTSE Grayscale® Consumer & Culture Crypto Sector Index, which includes crypto assets that support consumption-centric activities across a variety of goods and services.
FTSE Grayscale® Utilities & Services Crypto Sector Index, which includes crypto assets that aim to deliver practical and enterprise-level applications and functionalities.

To learn more about Grayscale Crypto Sectors, please visit: http://grayscale.com/crypto-sectors.

To learn more about the FTSE Grayscale Crypto Sector Index Series, please visit: https://www.lseg.com/en/ftse-russell/indices/grayscale-crypto-sectors.

Interested members of the media should email press@grayscale.com or newsroom@lseg.com.

Indices are unmanaged, and it is not possible to invest directly in an index.

About Grayscale Investments®
Grayscale enables investors to access the digital economy through a family of regulated and future-forward investment products. Founded in 2013, Grayscale has a proven track record and deep expertise as the world’s largest crypto asset manager. Investors, advisors, and allocators turn to Grayscale for single asset, diversified, and thematic exposure. Grayscale products are distributed by Grayscale Securities, LLC (Member FINRA/SIPC). For more information, please follow @Grayscale or visit grayscale.com.

About FTSE Russell, an LSEG Business
FTSE Russell is a global index leader that provides innovative benchmarking, analytics and data solutions for investors worldwide. FTSE Russell calculates thousands of indexes that measure and benchmark markets and asset classes in more than 70 countries, covering 98% of the investable market globally.

FTSE Russell index expertise and products are used extensively by institutional and retail investors globally. Approximately $20.1 trillion is currently benchmarked to FTSE Russell indexes. For over 30 years, leading asset owners, asset managers, ETF providers and investment banks have chosen FTSE Russell indexes to benchmark their investment performance and create ETFs, structured products and index-based derivatives.

A core set of universal principles guides FTSE Russell index design and management: a transparent rules-based methodology is informed by independent committees of leading market participants. FTSE Russell is focused on applying the highest industry standards in index design and governance and embraces the IOSCO Principles. FTSE Russell is also focused on index innovation and customer partnerships as it seeks to enhance the breadth, depth and reach of its offering.

FTSE Russell’s digital asset indices are constructed in association with Digital Asset Research (DAR), a specialized provider of crypto data. DAR contributes pricing, classification, and other crypto data, as well as the vetting of assets and exchanges according to FTSE Russell’s methodology; a fundamental value embedded into FTSE DAR Reference Price.

FTSE Russell is wholly owned by London Stock Exchange Group. For more information, visit www.ftserussell.com.

Grayscale Media Contact
Jennifer Rosenthal
press@grayscale.com

FTSE Russell Media Contact
Lemuel Brewster
Lemuel.Brewster@LSEG.com