Two Titans, One Benchmark
Nasdaq and CME Group, the world’s premier derivatives marketplace and the tech-heavy equity exchange, have jointly announced the rebrand of the Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) as the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index. The move effectively merges the reputations of traditional finance’s two largest infrastructure players to create a singular pricing authority for institutional digital assets.
The collaboration targets the primary friction point for asset managers: the lack of a unified, regulated yardstick. While retail traders rely on fragmented exchange prices, institutions require a defensible, audit-ready closing price to settle ETFs, structured notes, and pension products. The index will continue to be calculated by CF Benchmarks, a subsidiary of Kraken that already handles the reference rates for CME’s crypto futures.
Institutional Context: The ‘Clean’ Price
This partnership is a defensive moat. By slapping the CME name, synonymous with the world’s most liquid crypto futures, onto Nasdaq’s index methodology, the firms are attempting to standardize the “beta” of the crypto market. If BlackRock or Fidelity launches a multi-asset crypto fund, they need an index that regulators trust implicitly. This is that product.
“This is not just a name change. It is the combination of two gold standards to deliver the regulated diversification and foundational building block the market now demands.”, Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Executive Director
Market Reaction
Price action remained muted on the infrastructure news, with the market focused more on macro headwinds. Bitcoin (BTC) hovered near $90,200 (-1%), while Ethereum (ETH) struggled to reclaim $3,100 (-1.5%) amid low volatility. The lack of immediate price impact underscores that this is a plumbing upgrade for future products, not a spot market catalyst.
The index is already live and serves as the underlying benchmark for the Hashdex Nasdaq Crypto Index US ETF (NCIQ). With the rebrand, industry observers expect a new wave of structured products—such as capital-protected notes—to file for regulatory approval using the Nasdaq-CME benchmark as their reference.
