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Japan’s Nomura Research Institute Considers Introducing a New Cryptocurrency Index

Cryptocurrency investment solution provider Intelligence Unit (IU) announced a partnership with Japanese-based consulting company Nomura Research Institute (NRI) to introduce a new cryptocurrency index, popularly known as IU/NRI Crypto-Asset Index.

The new cryptocurrency index offers an investment solution for financial institutions in Japan as well as global investors. The index will be drawing data from CryptoCompare, a cryptocurrency data platform, and MV Index Solutions, a crypto index platform. The cryptocurrency index is the initial crypto-asset benchmark designed for institutional investors in Japan.

A tradable crypto market index

The two firms (the Intelligence Unit and the Nomura Research Institute) have mentioned that the cryptocurrency index focuses on covering all aspects of the crypto market. The index will track the prices of five cryptocurrencies – Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, and XRP. The five digital assets will be tracked based on the use of only two currencies (the United States dollar and the Japanese Yen) and will be available to trade in the two fiats.

The press release indicates that the cryptocurrency index can be utilized by institutional investors as a benchmark for objective investment appraisal. Moreover, it will allow financial information providers and crypto exchanges to display index values and charts to investors to be utilized as objective criteria to assess their investments.

The new instrument will be available through Nomura Research Institute’s financial information database to both international and domestic institutional clients. The offerings intend to start on January 31st, 2020.

Thomas Kettner, managing director at MV Index Solutions, said, “We are delighted to unveil this index for the Nomura Research Institute and the Intelligence Unit. We are pleased to offer our deep expertise and services in digital assets indexing to the Japanese market.”

Rising institutional demand for cryptocurrency investments

Akihiro Niimi, CEO of Intelligence Unit, mentioned, “Increasing demand from global institutional investors is what leads to the growing crypto-asset funds, and therefore well-diversified products/portfolios such as index funds are affordable and attractive as alternative investments. We intend to bridge the crypto-asset world and the traditional financial world by offering institutional-grade benchmarks for crypto assets, to further develop the status of crypto-assets as an alternative investment.”

The partnership is strategic to both parties. Nomura Research Institute’s collaboration with the Intelligence Unit gives cryptocurrencies to become widely recognized as an asset class. Thus, a significant number of companies see the potentials in introducing derivatives to help protect investors against exposure to price fluctuations.

With increasing institutional demand for digital asset investment, several index funds are set to emerge in the market. For instance, Stack, a Singapore-based digital asset platform, recently announced its intention of launching a Bitcoin index fund.

Meanwhile, Nomura Research Institute is a subsidiary company controlled and owned by Japan-based global investment bank Nomura Holdings that has embraced blockchain and provides many services associated with crypto assets. In May 2018, Nomura Holdings launched crypto custodial services at its banks to remove barriers to institutional investments in the crypto space.

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Zimbabwe Plans to Support Crypto ETFs, Calming Lower the Cost of Remittance

As many countries make advances toward supporting digital currency innovations, Zimbabwe’s Finance Minister, Mthuli Ncube, has confirmed that the government is exploring ways to let cryptocurrencies thrive.

Speaking to the country’s citizens at an event in Dubai last week, Ncube said the country is already creating an avenue to make digital currencies like Bitcoin legal, but not to become a legal tender, as in the case of El Salvador.

The minister pointed out the fact that digital currencies are now too big to ignore and that the embrace of digital currencies can help lower the cost of remittance to the country. This inflow is on track to hit $1 billion this year. Amongst the major considerations, Ncube noted the country is working on the launch of a crypto ETF. According to him, the plans for these products are already underway, and private investors are fronting the initiative.

While acknowledging that the nation has no plan to ban digital currencies, he explained, “but our view is that we do not want it to be a currency. Want this to be an investment class. So,… through the Victoria Falls Stock Exchange platform, we will try to create crypto-based products there, which is ring-fenced within the offshore zone.”

He reassured that the ministry “has taken the first step already and created a sandbox, at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), where the idea and everything else is being tested in a safe regulated, environment where it will then migrate to this safe Victoria Falls environment.”

There are no timelines for these crypto ETF pursuits. However, he noted that the active partners helping to develop the index weighting the ETF products will be based on are from Dubai, one of the growing financial hubs in the world today.

Crypto ETF products are becoming popular today. While relatively new, countries like Canada, Brazil, and Germany have active Bitcoin ETF products. The current move from Zimbabwe may place the country as the first in Africa to float the country’s first crypto ETF.

Bitpanda Launches New Crypto Indices for Long-Term Diversified Portfolios

Bitpanda, a digital investment platform, rolled out at least four crypto indices for investors, providing more options by helping them to diversify their portfolios.

The company seeks to simplify investment in different cryptocurrency projects, such as the metaverse, decentralized finance (DeFi), smart contracts, and infrastructure through new automated crypto indices.

Through the Bitpanda Crypto Indices, the platform intends to take away the complexities of investing in the cryptocurrency markets by offering users a hands-off approach.

Eric Demuth, the CEO and co-founder of Bitpanda, said:

“We launched Bitpanda Crypto Indices as a game changer for all people interested in crypto, especially newer investors who didn’t know where to start building their crypto portfolios.”

Initially, Bitpanda established three crypto index products in 2020 to auto-invest in the top 5 to 25 cryptocurrencies depending on popularity determined by liquidity and market size.

Therefore, the new crypto indices intend to render more investment opportunities in evolving spaces like the metaverse and DeFi. Demuth added:

“These four new crypto indices allow people to invest in areas they are passionate about. There’s no hassle, no need to constantly research new crypto projects, just a simple way for everyone to diversify their portfolios.”

Therefore, Bitpanda sees the new crypto indices as a stepping stone toward offering investors long-term diversified portfolios by being able to purchase multiple assets in emerging areas.

The firm also acknowledged that the crypto indices would be rebalanced monthly depending on liquidity and market size.

Meanwhile, the Crypto Price Index (CPI) was touted as a game-changer in the cryptocurrency market, Blockchain.News reported.

It was anticipated to function like the Dow Jones Industrial Average by offering insights into the trading history of the major blockchain projects.