As a method to replace legal currency or raise funds for emerging digital companies that provide infrastructure and platform solutions for digital businesses, crypto-assets like bitcoin are expected to grow significantly. After the crypto bubble burst at the beginning of 2018, countries began to properly establish regulation and the infrastructure around crypto-assets, which has led to an increase in market liquidity. As a result, more investors are investing in cryptos as alternative assets.

The increasing investment needs for crypto-assets have, in turn, led to a high demand for a benchmark to appraise those investments. In addition, there are more asset managers who manage crypto-asset index and ETF funds in conjunction with the benchmark, which has led to its creation. NRI decided to develop the index with IU as they have sector expertise in crypto-assets and connections to many crypto exchanges in the Japanese market.

The “NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index Family” can be used by institutional investors as a benchmark for objective investment appraisal. Further, the new solution will allow crypto exchanges and financial information providers to display charts and index values to investors to be used as objective criteria to evaluate their investments.

The index is calculated with a platform operated by MV Index Solutions GmbH, a company registered under the European benchmark regulation.

About Nomura Research Institute (NRI)

Founded in 1965, NRI is a leading global provider of system solutions and consulting services, including management consulting, system integration, and IT management and solutions for financial, manufacturing, retail and service industries. Clients partner with NRI to expand businesses, design corporate structures and create new business strategies. NRI has about 13,000 employees in more than 50 offices globally including New York, London, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia. NRI reports annual sales above $4.2 billion. For more information, visit https://www.nri.com/en

About Intelligence Unit LLC (IU)

Intelligence Unit LLC (IU), was established in 2018 to provide the solution for the crypt-asset investment to domestic and overseas investors. IU has developed domestic crypt-exchange’s database together with CryptoCompare which manages the crypt-asset comparison site, and IU has been providing the crypto-asset data to domestic companies. In 2019, IU and MV Index Solutions GmbH, collaborated to establish the quantitative analysis method which enables to develop the crypt-asset index for domestic and overseas investors. IU Asset Management Co., Ltd. (a group company of IU) is a first Japanese asset management company specializing in the crypt-asset, and aims to create crypt-asset index funds and develop index derivative products.

About MV Index Solutions GmbH (MVIS)

MV Index Solutions (MVIS®) develops, monitors and licenses the MVIS Indices, a selection of focused, investable and diversified benchmark indices. The indices are especially designed to underlie financial products. MVIS Indices cover several asset classes, including equity, fixed income markets and digital assets and are licensed to serve as underlying indices for financial products. Approximately USD 15 billion in assets under management are currently invested in financial products based on MVIS Indices. MVIS is a VanEck company.