London, Santa Monica, and New York, May 23, 2023 – Wilshire,a global investment technology and advisory company, and Digital Asset Research(DAR), a specialized provider of ‘clean’ digital asset data, research and insights,today announced that 123 additional assets have been classified and added tothe Digital Asset Taxonomy System (DATS) as a result of its rules-basedquarterly review process.
DATS now classifies 1,594 digital assets, the broadest coverage in the market, to enable traditional and digital-native financial institutions to perform sector-based performance attribution, assess sector themes and construct custom portfolios.
DATS routinely classifies the top 1,000 digital assets by market capitalization at the end of each quarter. The classification of an additional 123 digital assets at the April review follows a turbulent trading period over the last three quarters which resulted in significant changes to the market capitalization of many digital assets.
There was a change to the classification of DeFi assets that were built on top of Proof-of-Stake blockchains from “DeFi, Environmentally Focused” theme to “DeFi” post Ethereum’s adoption of the Proof-of-Stake consensus mechanism.
The updated classifications will be implemented on June5,2023.
Martin Howard, SVP of Index Research at Wilshire commented, “Quarterly reviews of the Digital Asset Taxonomy System ensure that the sector classification remains representative of this nascent and rapidly evolving asset class. By publishing the rules-based methodology we aim to bring the utmost transparency to classification so that institutions can make investment decisions based on trusted data.”
Doug Schwenk, CEO of Digital Asset Research (DAR) and Deputy Co-Chair of the Wilshire Digital Assets Advisory Group, commented, “The continued growth of DATS is vital to the industry, as it provides much-needed structure and clarity in this ever-changing landscape. For institutions, DATS is the most rigorous classification framework facilitating organized and sustainable growth.”
How can investors use DATS in their investment management operations?
Traditional and digital-native asset owners, product issuers, custodians and research service providers can license DATS for the same purposes as they would when adopting an equity or fixed income classification system:
Developing digital asset investment strategies and risk policies
Issuing index-linked products based on sector-themed indexes
Conducting performance attribution
Constructing custom digital asset portfolios
The next review will be in July 2023. Visit www.wilshire.com/dats for more information and for the full DATS methodology.
About Wilshire
Wilshire is a global provider of market-leading indexes, advanced analytics and multi-asset investment solutions. A trusted partner to a diverse range of more than 500 institutional investors and financial intermediaries, our clients rely on us to improve investment outcomes for a better future. Wilshire is headquartered in the United States with offices worldwide and advises on over $1.3 trillion in assets, $83 billion of which are assets under management.
More information on Wilshire can be found atwww.wilshire.com.
About Digital Asset Research
Digital Asset Research (DAR) is a specialized provider of ‘clean’ digital asset data, insights and research for institutional clients. Since 2017, DAR leads by rigorously vetting out noisy inputs for flagship clients such as Bloomberg, Chainlink and Wilshire. Each day, DAR processes200+million trades to calculate 10,000+ institutional-quality digital asset prices and deliver a range of product solutions to navigate the cryptoverse.
