Galaxy Digital Partners With Alerian to Launch Crypto, Blockchain Indexes

Galaxy's Steve Kurz says the indexes offer advisors access to the entire blockchain and cryptocurrency ecosystem.

Galaxy Digital Holdings Ltd., a sponsor of several cryptocurrency funds, has partnered with index provider Alerian and S-Network Global Indexes to launch a suite of blockchain and crypto-focused investment indexes in response to the growing demand for investment opportunities in both markets.

There are eight new indexes overall, split evenly between blockchain and cryptocurrency strategies. All are equally weighted and rebalanced monthly and together provide exposure to public companies and select investment vehicles actively engaged in the global cryptocurrency and blockchain sectors.

The cryptocurrency indexes include crypto miners, infrastructure technologies and buyers. The blockchain indexes focus primarily on blockchain users.

The four blockchain indexes are:

The four cryptocurrency indexes are:

“Our goal is to continue to empower investors with seamless, institutional, and innovative access points to the emerging digital assets ecosystem,” said Steve Kurz, Partner and Head of Asset Management at Galaxy Digital, in a statement. “For the first time, thanks to the indexes we developed in partnership with Alerian, advisors have access to the entire ecosystem, including operating companies and crypto products traded on the open market.”

Robert Hughes, chief commercial officer of Alerian and S-Network Global Indexes, said, “Galaxy Fund Management was a natural partner” for Alerian, which sought a foothold in the decentralized finance space “given Galaxy Digital’s industry leading history, deep connectivity, and unparalleled innovation delivering this new asset class to investors.”

Gartner has forecast that blockchain will generate $176 billion in additional business by 2025 and $3.1 trillion by 2030, though opportunities for institutional-grade investment vehicles will be limited.

Galaxy, led by founder and CEO Mike Novogratz, has $1.6 billion in assets under management as of July 31, 2022, and is also involved in investment banking, mining and trading within the crypto and blockchain ecosystems.

Alerian, which started out as an index provider for the midstream master limited partnership sector and has expanded to include both income and thematic indexes, has over $23 billion in assets benchmarked to its indexes. It recently acquired ETF Trends and ETF Database, and in 2020 it acquired S-Network Global Indexes, which expanded its index offerings.