Crypto index comparison, tier 2
21Shares Crypto Baskets Alternative: CCi30 vs 21Shares Crypto Baskets
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index is the rules-based alternative to the 21Shares Crypto Baskets. This page reviews the 21Shares / HODL5 and Crypto Basket Indices under the eight-criterion CCi30 test and compares both indices on universe, weighting, independence, track record, and investability.
What is the alternative to the 21Shares Crypto Baskets?
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index replaces the 21Shares Crypto Baskets for investors who need a whole-market benchmark. The CCi30 holds the 30 largest cryptocurrencies by smoothed market capitalization, weights them by the square root of that figure, excludes stablecoins by rule, and has published live values since 1 January 2015.
- 30 constituents
- Square-root weighting
- Stablecoins excluded by rule
- Live since 1 January 2015
- Independent, fully rules-based
What is the 21Shares Crypto Baskets?
21Shares, the Swiss ETP issuer, pioneered exchange-traded crypto baskets in Europe with the HODL5 (top-5 basket ETP) and related Crypto Basket indices administered for its own product shelf.
How is the 21Shares Crypto Baskets built?
Small baskets (typically five assets) of the largest cryptocurrencies by capitalization, variously cap- or equal-weighted with caps, rebalanced periodically, universe restricted to assets supported by the issuer’s custody and the SIX listing framework.
Where the 21Shares Crypto Baskets falls short statistically
The HODL5 was included in the academic index-evaluation literature alongside the CCi30, and the comparison is instructive. That literature observed that HODL5 tracked its cap-weighted “total market index” closely, unsurprising, since a BTC-dominated five-coin basket naturally shadows a BTC-dominated total. But correlation with concentration is not representation: an index whose information content collapses into Bitcoin’s price offers nothing an investor cannot get by holding Bitcoin. At n=5, statistical significance as a market estimator is unattainable, one-sixth of the documented n=30 threshold at which the CCi30 achieves 99% confidence with a 1.11% margin of error. The 21Shares case adds the purest form of the product-first pattern: the index exists because the ETP needed a benchmark, not the reverse. Index changes follow product needs (custody availability, listing rules, fee competition), the inversion that defines this entire tier.
Can the 21Shares Crypto Baskets be replicated by an investor?
Perfect, trivially: the index is the product’s holdings. Which is the point, a benchmark identical to the portfolio it benchmarks measures nothing but itself.
Method and sources
Methodology facts on this page come from the published documents of the provider; constituent lists change and should be re-verified before citation. The CCi30 rules are published in the methodology manual. The full comparison set is on the crypto index comparison hub, and the allocation calculator shows the CCi30 basket for any amount.