S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Roll Out Revenue-Screened Digital Asset Benchmark

S&P Dow Jones Indices and Pantera Capital on Tuesday introduced the S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index, positioning it as a benchmark for institutional investors looking for a more rules-based, fundamentals-oriented way to allocate to digital assets. According to the companies, the index emphasizes fundamentals rather than size or momentum. It is designed to include only tokens and companies with real-world usage and revenue generation, while excluding meme coins and Bitcoin. The index launches with 18 constituents, weighted by float-adjusted market capitalization, Pantera said in its July Blockchain Letter. Pantera added that the initial constituents generated more than $3 billion in annualized revenue over the trailing two quarters and include Hyperliquid, Solana, and Aave. Pantera said it modeled the screening framework on the S&P 500's financial viability standard, which requires four consecutive quarters of positive GAAP earnings. In the digital asset version, inclusion requires consecutive quarters of positive protocol revenue above a minimum threshold, verified using on-chain data from Artemis. The methodology also requires confirmation that revenue accrues to tokenholders through mechanisms such as buybacks, staking yields net of inflation, distributions, or tokenholder-controlled treasuries. "S&P Dow Jones Indices helps investors cut through market noise with benchmarks you can trust," said Cathy Clay, CEO of S&P Dow Jones Indices, adding that the index applies "the same standards" as established benchmarks like the S&P 500 using a "fundamentals-driven, economics-based framework" supported by Artemis data. Pantera, which describes itself as the first U.S. institutional crypto fund and says it manages more than $3 billion across passive, hedge and venture strategies, said it views the index as a base for future products. The firm said it has begun discussions with asset managers about potential ETFs and other products linked to the index, and with financial data providers about adopting it as a flagship industry benchmark. No tracking product has been launched. The announcement follows other recent S&P moves in crypto indexing, including a combined cryptocurrency and crypto-stock index and a tokenized S&P 500 index fund with Centrifuge. The firms said the new index is separate from those efforts. Pantera's description of the index as measuring "real economic value" reflects the firm's own framing. Any performance figures cited by Pantera for periods before the launch date are backtested and, per its disclosures, are not indicative of future results.