CME Emerging Crypto Index Excludes Bitcoin, Favors Altcoins

The CME Emerging Crypto Index has been launched by CME Group, excluding Bitcoin and Ethereum from its benchmark. The index is administered by CF Benchmarks and measures eligible crypto assets beyond the market's two largest tokens.

According to a research portfolio graphic published by CF Benchmarks on August 13, four tokens hold 92.7% of the indicative weight: BNB (32.0%), XRP (27.6%), Solana (18.5%), and HYPE (14.6%). The remaining assets account for only 7.3%.

A 10% move in BNB, for example, would add approximately 3.2 percentage points to the portfolio before other changes are considered.

Neither index currently settles CME contracts, and a tradable product could use either benchmark later, but that would require a separate announcement and product structure.