Bitcoin and XRP Snubbed from Key New Crypto Index

The S&P Pantera Digital Asset Index has launched, and two prominent cryptocurrencies are missing from its list of constituents: Bitcoin and XRP.

The index focuses on coins with strong financial fundamentals, ranking blockchains by protocol revenue, the fees that networks incur for use. The inclusion criteria require coins to have positive protocol revenue during two consecutive quarters, size, liquidity, and a market capitalization-weighted ranking based on their revenue.

Bitcoin's transaction fees flow directly to its miners, rather than holders, causing it to fail the revenue test outright. XRP, on the other hand, had chain revenue of $2.3 million in 2025, but this was not enough to make it into the limited number of spots in the index.

Ripple's XRP Ledger (XRPL) is designed as a plumbing system for various purposes in the financial industry, making its exclusion somewhat significant. Pantera likens its qualification criteria to the S&P 500's viability test, expecting the roster to widen only as protocols route more value to tokenholders.