Digital asset market maker Wintermute and media platform The Block announced the backing of a digital asset indices firm, “GMCI.” GMCI brings GCMI 30, a benchmark index tracking the market performance of large-cap crypto to the market.
Wintermute, together with The Block, announced the backing of GMCI. GCMI will deliver comprehensive index products for the crypto asset management market.
GMCI Tracks Price Performance of Top 30 Cryptocurrencies by Market Cap
Wintermute, a digital asset liquidity provider and OTC trading desk, announced that it would back GMCI in partnership with digital asset information services provider The Block. According to a press release, the new company aims to deliver comprehensive index products for the cryptocurrency management market.
The new joint venture, Global Market Crypto Intelligence (GMCI), is led by CEO Maarten Botman, who brings his 15 years of experience from Optiver to the project. GMCI’s board of directors includes the CEO of The Block, Larry Cermak, and Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute.
According to the press release, the venture’s flagship project, the GMCI 30 index, tracks the price performance of the top 30 cryptocurrency assets, providing crypto and TradFi investors with an index that offers a “best-in-class” benchmark to evaluate their returns, broader market performance, and manage risk.
Assets Must Be Listed on At Least One of Eight Selected Centralized Exchanges
The GMCI 30 index represents the 30 crypto assets index by market cap “with a structure that caps the weighting of the top asset at a maximum of 25% of the index’s total value.” Assets must also meet specific criteria to be included in the index.
Per the announcement, an “asset must be listed on at least one of the eight selected centralized exchanges (CEXs) and supported by at least one of the three selected custodians.” There must also be comprehensive Market Capitalization data available for each asset.
Maarten Botman commented on the convenience of the joint venture.
“For someone who doesn’t spend all their time diving deeper into the digital asset ecosystem, getting broader or specific market exposure is often a hard task. GMCI indices are designed to bring transparency and simplicity to this quickly evolving asset class. Tracking the performance of the entire industry as well as its sub-sectors is going to become incredibly simple.”
GMCI 30 Index is Only the First Step
The company explained the GMCI 30 Index is only the first step in its plan to offer a wide range of segment- and category-specific custom-built indices for digital assets. According to the GMCI, additional sector indices specifically tracking Layer 1s, Layer 2s, and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols will launch soon after the flagship index.
Botman added that its eventual goal is to trade exchange-traded funds on regulated security exchanges, while the initial go-to-market strategy is to use the flagship index and allow third parties to build perpetual swap products and list them on leading futures exchanges.
Evgeny Gaevoy, CEO of Wintermute, commented:
“The launch of GMCI is a very important step in making our industry more accessible for both insiders and new entrants. Its mission is simple, yet ambitious, and I am excited to back it up with Wintermute’s broad expertise and positioning.”
While Larry Cermak, CEO of The Block, said:
“I am thrilled The Block can help display robustly designed indices in the market. Following hundreds of crypto assets has become an impossible task and with GMCI’s transparent approach, tracking prices across sectors is now accessible for anyone.”
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
Source: https://cryptodaily.co.uk/2024/02/market-maker-wintermute-and-the-block-launch-crypto-price-index-gmci