By
Tolu Ajiboye
March 8th, 2024
Nasdaq and Reality Shares have joined hands to form a new Economy Index which registers all the top companies involved in developing and implementing solution based on Blockchain Technology
American Stock Exchange – Nasdaq has been an active participant in the Fintech revolution. Nasdaq has contributed in several different ways right from forming a new Fintech Index with insurance and asset management company Keefe, Bruyette & Woods to allowing Ether Exchange Traded Notes (ETNs) to be traded on its exchange. In a yet another ambitious project, the American Stock Exchange has joined hands with Reality Shares and announced the joint formation of Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index.
This Economy Index is basically a smart-beta index tracking the development and growth of several leading global companies which are involved in creating and implementing Blockchain solutions. This group of global companies can be operating in any markets but are capitalizing on the Blockchain technology for further growth. Reality Shares has teamed up with Nasdaq considering the latter’s active involvement, experience and interest in blockchain technology. The Index formed by the two makes use of the internal and external research as well as its proprietary Blockchain ScoreTM system.
Earlier this month on the 2nd of November, Reality Shares filed for an exchange-traded-fund (ETF) with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. This ETF will be involved in tracking companies that are involved with the Blockchain Technology. Each company will be then be given a Blockchain score before getting registered in the index. The scores will be based on factors like company’s past involvement with Blockchain technology, the patent applications as well as the economic impact of its solutions. Once the companies are ranked based on their scores, around top 50-100 companies with the highest scores will be registered in the index.
Vice President of Blockchain Innovation at Nasdaq, Fredrik Voss said: “The collaboration between Nasdaq and Reality Shares represents a tangible way to track the growth of an industry that may revolutionize the way commerce is conducted, and yet is still in its infancy.”
One of the major advantages of the Blockchain Technology is the secured an unalterable digital ledger for peer-to-peer transactions. Moreover, it is completely open for anyone to check the transactions which bring a lot of transparency in its working without relying on any third-party management. The Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index will work on the method of identifying companies that are involved in developing and implementing solutions which are based on the peer-to-peer distributed network. By using the blockchain technology, the companies may develop applications that can affect data storage, global payments, transactional records and supply chain management.
Eric Ervin, CEO of Reality Shares said “Reality Shares recognized the tremendous growth potential of blockchain technology, and subsequently teamed up with Nasdaq to identify what we believe to be the leading global companies deploying resources to develop blockchain applications. As these new applications are deployed, we believe these companies will most likely become disrupters in their industries, with the potential to profit at the expense of laggard companies that do not deploy blockchain applications.” While clearing his stand on cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology he further stated that “We’re not making the claim that crypto is the next big thing; what we’re saying is that this technology that’s beneath the bitcoin infrastructure is the next big thing.”