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

The S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index is built around protocol revenue rather than relying only on token prices or market capitalization. Bitcoin and XRP did not qualify under the benchmark's revenue-focused selection rules, while Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON and Hyperliquid's HYPE token hold the five largest positions at launch.

The approach marks a departure for a major index provider in applying a revenue-based screen—commonplace in equity indexing—to digital assets, where benchmarks have historically been weighted by market capitalization. Protocol revenue, in this context, refers to fees collected by a blockchain network from activities such as transactions, decentralized application usage, and trading services.

According to a joint announcement from S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital, the benchmark is intended to measure established network activity across digital assets. The companies said the index may be used to 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 did not enter the new benchmark, S&P Dow Jones Indices wrote in an Indexology blog post. Their exclusion is tied to the index's revenue requirements, rather than to market value, liquidity or name recognition.

S&P Dow Jones Indices CEO Kathy Clay told CNBC that Bitcoin did not meet the benchmark's criteria because it is not treated as a revenue-generating protocol under the index methodology.

“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.”

Bitcoin rewards miners with newly issued coins and transaction fees for securing the network. S&P's methodology instead emphasizes revenue connected to activity across protocols and applications, favoring blockchains that collect fees from transactions, trading and other services.

Clay told CNBC that S&P aimed to apply principles used in traditional equity indexes to digital assets by measuring factors viewed as relevant to professional investors. The result is a benchmark centered on the economic activity of blockchain networks, rather than one determined solely by the size of their tokens.

Protocol revenue determines which assets qualify

The eligible universe for the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index is drawn from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Asset Index. According to the companies, assets must first pass minimum requirements for protocol revenue, market capitalization and liquidity. Tokens that clear those screens are then ranked by total protocol revenue across the two most recent quarters.

Adjusted market capitalization is used to determine the weight of each qualifying asset. Under the index rules, the largest constituent cannot exceed 35%, while other holdings are generally capped at 20%.

The benchmark is rebalanced quarterly, allowing constituents to be added, removed or resized as revenue, liquidity and market value change. As a result, an asset's position depends on continued network use as well as its ability to satisfy the index's trading requirements.

Ether, BNB, Solana, TRON and Hyperliquid's HYPE token occupy the five largest positions at launch, according to S&P's Indexology post. Each represents a network that collects revenue from transactions or applications operating on its infrastructure. Hyperliquid operates a decentralized perpetuals trading platform on its own layer-1 blockchain, and HYPE began trading in late 2024.

Many crypto benchmarks, by contrast, give Bitcoin the largest allocation because market capitalization is the primary weighting measure. Bitcoin accounted for about 57% of the total cryptocurrency market when the new index was introduced, according to CoinGecko data cited by Investopedia.

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

S&P's new benchmark does not remove market capitalization from the calculation entirely. Instead, revenue determines which assets qualify and how they are ranked before adjusted market value is used to set final weights.

Pantera Capital's role links the index to a crypto-focused investment manager that has backed blockchain projects and digital assets. Under the joint framework, S&P contributes index construction and governance experience, while Pantera provides knowledge of blockchain networks and their economic models.

Fund providers broaden multi-asset crypto exposure

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

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

Franklin Templeton entered the segment in February 2025 with the 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 adjust holdings when more assets satisfy regulatory and investment requirements.

MarketVector Indexes and Coinbase Asset Management introduced a different model in April with the Coinbase Store of Value Index. That benchmark combines Bitcoin with tokenized gold and uses inverse-volatility weighting, assigning less weight to the asset with higher price swings.

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

The S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index applies that diversification concept to revenue-producing networks. In doing so, it leaves the market's largest cryptocurrency outside the benchmark while assigning leading positions to blockchains with measurable fee activity. Whether revenue-weighted methodologies gain traction among other index providers will be a signal of how institutional crypto indexing evolves beyond market-cap conventions.