Nasdaq and CME Group Relaunch Crypto Index to Capture Institutional ETF Wave
The financial giants unify their benchmark offerings as analysts predict over 100 new crypto ETFs will hit the market in 2026.
Nasdaq and CME Group solidified their digital asset infrastructure alliance today, rebranding the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) as the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index. The move positions the benchmark as the primary settlement layer for a projected flood of institutional products expected to hit markets later this year.
The Index Infrastructure
The NCI is not a theoretical model; it actively tracks a weighted basket of assets including Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Solana (SOL), XRP, Litecoin (LTC), Chainlink (LINK), Cardano (ADA), and Avalanche (AVAX). It currently underpins over $1 billion in assets globally, including the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index ETF (NCIQ).
Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group’s Executive Director of Equity and Alternative Products, described the integration as the “combination of two gold standards” intended to standardize how regulated diversification is executed.
“We see the index-based approach as the direction investors are heading, beyond just bitcoin. That’s similar to what we’ve seen in other asset classes, where you have indexes that are representative of the broader market,” Sean Wasserman, Head of Index Product Management at Nasdaq
The Institutional Context
The timing aligns with aggressive forecasts for structured crypto products. Asset manager Bitwise has predicted that more than 100 crypto-linked ETFs will launch in 2026, a projection backed by Bloomberg Intelligence analyst James Seyffart.
This expected volume stems from the SEC’s recent shift toward generic listing standards, which reduced approval timelines and removed the need for case-by-case regulatory reviews for certain asset classes. By unifying their branding and methodology, Nasdaq and CME are effectively bidding to become the S&P 500 of the crypto sector before this liquidity fragmentation occurs.
