Bloomberg and Galaxy team up on decentralized finance index

Mike Novogratz's Galaxy Digital has teamed up once again with data and financial information giant Bloomberg to launch a new crypto index tied to decentralized finance or DeFi. 

The new index, revealed Thursday, will track nine DeFi tokens to start, and will also serve as the basis for a new passively-managed fund by Galaxy. In 2018, Bloomberg and Galaxy launched the Bloomberg Crypto Index, comprised of the market's most liquid tokens including bitcoin and ether. 

Indexes underpin financial products, such as an over-the-counter derivative or exchange-traded product. Both indexes are owned and administered by Bloomberg, which determines the product's constituent assets. 

Assets in the index include Uniswap, Aave, Maker, Compound, Yearn, and Sushi. The new index joins a rival DeFi index operated by Bitwise, which launched in February.

According to a press release, the coins in the DeFi index were "selected based on institutional trading and custody readiness in the United States as well as quality of pricing."

“Galaxy continues to pioneer inroads for institutions seeking exposure to the innovation happening within the crypto ecosystem,” noted Galaxy's head of asset management Steve Kurz. “The blockchain-based infrastructure behind DeFi is maturing at an accelerating rate and clear examples of how this new technology can disrupt financial services are emerging in real-time. Our unique DeFi Index Fund provides investors with institutional-grade exposure to the future of financial services.”

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Frank Chaparro is Host of The Scoop podcast and Director of Special Projects. He also writes a biweekly newsletter. Chaparro started his career at Business Insider, where he specialized in the intersection of digital assets and Wall Street, market structure, and financial technology. Soon after joining Business Insider out of Fordham University, Chaparro was interviewing top finance and tech executives, including billionaire Mark Cuban, “Flash Boys” star Brad Katsuyama, Cboe Global Markets CEO Ed Tilly, and New York Stock Exchange President Tom Farley. In 2018, he become a sought after reporter in the crypto world, interviewing luminaries such as Tyler Winklevoss, the cofounder of Gemini, Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of Circle, and Fundstrat head Tom Lee. For inquiries or tips, email [email protected].