Crypto index comparison, tier 1
Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index Alternative: CCi30 vs Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index is the rules-based alternative to the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index. This page reviews the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) under the eight-criterion CCi30 test and compares both indices on universe, weighting, independence, track record, and investability.
What is the alternative to the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index?
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index replaces the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index 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 Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index?
Launched in 2018 as a partnership between Bloomberg Index Services and Galaxy Digital, the BGCI is a market-cap-weighted benchmark of roughly a dozen of the largest USD-traded cryptocurrencies, rebalanced monthly. It is among the more cited indices in financial media, owing to Bloomberg’s distribution.
How is the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index built?
Constituents must meet screens for liquidity, pricing-source quality, and free float; stablecoins and pegged assets are excluded. Weights are based on market capitalization, subject to caps on the largest constituents and floors on the smallest, mechanical patches applied to restrain Bitcoin’s dominance and keep small members visible.
Where the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index falls short statistically
Caps and floors are a confession
The moment an index must cap its largest constituent, it has admitted that pure cap-weighting fails in this asset class. But a hard cap is the crudest possible correction: it introduces a kink in the weight function, forces mechanical selling of the best-performing asset at every rebalance regardless of information, and makes the effective weighting scheme discontinuous and path-dependent. The CCi30’s square-root transform solves the same problem smoothly, a single, continuous, mathematically motivated function that compresses concentration without arbitrary thresholds. One method is a formula; the other is a committee’s tourniquet.
A dozen coins is not the market
With roughly twelve constituents dominated by BTC and ETH, the BGCI’s incremental information over a simple two-asset basket is minimal. Twelve also sits decisively below the statistical-significance threshold of thirty documented in the CCi30 methodology: a sub-30 sample cannot represent the market at meaningful confidence, whereas the CCi30’s thirty constituents represent it at 99% confidence with a 1.11% margin of error. The BGCI’s coverage of the long institutional-grade tail, where the market’s sector diversity actually lives, is negligible next to the CCi30’s thirty.
The Galaxy problem
Galaxy Digital is an active trading firm and asset manager in the very assets the index selects. Co-branding a benchmark with a market participant is a conflict of interest that would be unthinkable in mature asset classes, imagine the “Bloomberg Goldman Sachs Equity Index” deciding which stocks count as the stock market.
Privacy coins
Screened out via pricing-source and venue requirements tuned to US-institutional comfort. Same censorship, different paperwork.
Can the Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index be replicated by an investor?
Genuinely replicable, the constituents are liquid, but that is because the index is narrow, and narrowness is precisely its statistical failure. Ease of replication purchased by refusing to represent the market is not a virtue; it is the definition of a convenience sample.
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.