Crypto index comparison, tier 4
Hybrid Crypto-Equity Indices: S&P Digital Markets 50 and the Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index is the rules-based alternative to hybrid crypto-equity indices. This page reviews the S&P Digital Markets 50 and the Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index under the eight-criterion CCi30 test and compares them with the CCi30 on universe, weighting, independence, track record, and investability.
What is the alternative to hybrid crypto-equity indices?
The CCi30 Cryptocurrency Index replaces hybrid crypto-equity indices for investors who need a benchmark of the cryptocurrency market itself. 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 holds no shares.
- 30 constituents
- Square-root weighting
- Stablecoins excluded by rule
- Real time since 1 January 2017
- Independent, fully rules-based
CCi30 vs hybrid crypto-equity indices
15 cryptos inside 50 components (DM50); 2 crypto ETFs inside 10 (Mag7 + Crypto)
Top 30 by rule, ~90% of true-crypto cap
Excluded (DM50 inherits S&P’s written exclusion; Mag7 + Crypto holds only Bitcoin and Ether ETFs)
Included when market cap qualifies
Excluded
Excluded from inception
Capped weights (DM50); equal-weighted (Mag7 + Crypto); both equity-dominated
Square root of smoothed cap
S&P index with a Dinari token; MarketVector index for Coinbase Derivatives, with COIN as a constituent
Fully rules-based, independent
DM50 announced 7 Oct 2025, launched 24 Nov 2025; Mag7 + Crypto futures listed 22 Sep 2025
Published in real time since 1 January 2017; history from 1 January 2015
Futures (Mag7 + Crypto) and a token (DM50); the Mag7 + Crypto is ten listed securities, bought directly
30 liquid constituents, monthly rebalancing
The emergence of a hybrid category is a market signal worth reading honestly: Wall Street wants crypto exposure that looks like equities and trades like equities. The CCi30 serves the opposite demand: exposure to the cryptocurrency market as it actually is, thirty coins and no shares, weighted by one published formula. Between an index that mixes crypto with stocks and an index that is the cryptocurrency market, the choice is a question of what you are trying to know.
What are the hybrid crypto-equity indices?
A new category: indices that mix cryptocurrencies with listed equities and call the blend a digital-asset benchmark.
The S&P Digital Markets 50 Index, announced by S&P Global on 7 October 2025 and launched on 24 November 2025, was designed with tokenization firm Dinari. It holds 50 components: 35 companies in digital asset operations, infrastructure, financial services and blockchain applications, and 15 cryptocurrencies drawn from the S&P Cryptocurrency Broad Digital Market Index. Dinari issues a token tracking the index. S&P’s announcement takes care to state that the token is not sponsored or sold by S&P Dow Jones Indices, and that S&P makes no representation about the advisability of investing in it.
The Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index, with MarketVector as index provider, is the underlying of monthly, cash-settled futures that Coinbase Derivatives listed on 22 September 2025. It holds ten equal-weighted components: the seven “Magnificent Seven” megacap stocks, Coinbase’s own stock, and two iShares crypto ETFs (Bitcoin and Ethereum), rebalanced quarterly.
Where the hybrid indices fall short statistically
A hybrid measures neither thing
An index that is 70% equities by count (Digital Markets 50) or 80% equities by weight (Mag7 + Crypto) cannot answer the question a crypto benchmark exists to answer. Its return series is dominated by equity beta, with a crypto residual. An allocator benchmarking a digital-asset mandate to the Mag7 + Crypto would be measuring their crypto exposure against Apple’s earnings. These are thematic equity products with a crypto garnish, and the correct comparator is an equity index (the Nasdaq-100, in the Mag7 case), not the CCi30.
Fifteen cryptocurrencies, pre-filtered
The Digital Markets 50’s crypto sleeve is drawn from S&P’s Broad Digital Market universe, the same universe analyzed on the S&P page, from which S&P’s own written rules exclude privacy coins. It is then cut to fifteen, half the statistically significant count. Whatever representational claim the sleeve could make is forfeited twice: once by exclusion, once by truncation.
Coinbase in a Coinbase index
The Mag7 + Crypto index, built for Coinbase Derivatives, includes Coinbase Global stock as one of its ten equal-weighted components: 10% at each rebalance of the underlying of a futures contract listed by the company’s own derivatives exchange. Exchange-sponsored indices have always carried listing conflicts. This one carries the sponsor as a constituent.
Tokenization is distribution, not methodology
Dinari’s tracking token and Coinbase’s futures are product wrappers, the Crypto20 and CIX100 pattern in 2025 clothing. A tokenized index is still an index whose instrument can trade away from its value, and whose existence depends on the issuer’s commercial interest in the wrapper.
Can the hybrid indices be replicated by an investor?
Both were built to be traded: the Mag7 + Crypto index as a futures underlying, the Digital Markets 50 through Dinari’s token. The Mag7 + Crypto can also be replicated outright, since all ten of its components are listed securities an investor can buy directly. Trivial to hold, impossible to benchmark anything to: the convenience-sample pattern in its most complete form.
Method and sources
Methodology facts on this page come from the published documents of the providers; 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.
For the hybrid indices: S&P Global press release on the S&P Digital Markets 50 (7 October 2025); Dinari, S&P Digital Markets 50 Index page; Cointelegraph on the Coinbase announcement of the Mag7 + Crypto Equity Index (3 September 2025).