Grayscale Launches Future of Finance Index in Partnership with Bloomberg

Digital currency investment and cryptocurrency asset management firm Grayscale continues to chase its expanded exchange-traded fund (ETF) plans with the launch of a new crypto-related index offered in collaboration with Bloomberg.

Future of Finance Index By Grayscale and Bloomberg

According to a press release issued on Wednesday, January 19, 2022,  Bloomberg and Grayscale have announced the launch of an index called the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance (BGFOF). The index is built to provide investors with an analytical tool to follow the convergence of finance, technology, and digital assets in the growing digital economy.

BGFOF will track U.S. and non-U.S. crypto-linked equities across 22 companies selected by Bloomberg’s Intelligence analysts based on its proprietary theme basket methodology. The filing document, however, doesn’t list the 22 companies, but they are said to be firms that will play a pivotal role in the growth of the emerging digital economy, i.e., the future of finance.

The index will not offer direct exposure to digital assets or their derivatives but will instead offer investors indirect exposure to the crypto-linked equities tracked by BGFOF across markets like crypto trading, blockchain innovation, cryptocurrency mining, virtual asset management.

Commenting on the importance of the index and its role in providing much-needed insight into relevant developments for investors, Bloomberg’s Global Head of Multi-Asset Indices Dace Gedeon said:

“As transformative technologies continue to develop and revolutionize financial markets, we expect investor interest in those innovations will increase rapidly. With the launch of the Bloomberg Grayscale Future of Finance Index, investors now have a best-in-class benchmark to measure the performance of their current and potential investments in the space.”

Grayscale’s ETF Ambitions

This index is in line with Grayscales recent push in the crypto ETF arena. The world’s largest asset management has been trying to convert its Bitcoin Trust to a bitcoin ETF.

However, as recently reported by CryptoPotato, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), in mid-December 2020, elected to postpone its decision on the Grayscale bitcoin ETF. The SEC has so far decided against approving any physically-backed bitcoin ETF application, much to the chagrin of crypto proponents in America.

By launching this BGFOF, Grayscale’s index now joins an expanding field of crypto investment tracking products, including those offered by Valkyrie and Bitwise, to name a few.