Wilshire and DAR Publish Sector Classification of the Top 1,000 Digital Assets

The pioneering Digital Asset Taxonomy System (DATS) is now available for investment research teams and product issuers to license – a pivotal milestone for institutional investors to access the emerging crypto asset class.

LONDON & SANTA MONICA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wilshire, a global investment technology and advisory company, and Digital Asset Research (DAR), a leading provider of crypto asset data and research, today announced the classification of the top 1,000 digital assets by market capitalization.

The pioneering Digital Asset Taxonomy System (DATS) data is now available to be licensed by:

• Investment research teams to conduct performance attribution
• Market data platforms to inform trading decisions
• Product issuers to build index-linked investment products

Mark Makepeace, CEO of Wilshire, said: “The rigorous approach to research and classification makes DATS the market standard for institutional investors, who need confidence in a rules-based taxonomy to conduct their research and make risk-adjusted asset allocation decisions.”

Doug Schwenk, CEO of DAR, said: “The delivery of DATS and the classification of the top 1,000 digital assets has been much anticipated by the market to measure sector-level risks and performance drivers. DATS is now the only truly institutional industry classification standard for digital assets, given its breadth of coverage, transparency, and objective governance structure.”

Composition of the top 1,000 digital assets

The classification system expands beyond digital currencies which has the smallest constituent count of the three DATS supersectors.

1. Computation Platforms – 45.2% of assets; includes application tokens such as metaverse-related tokens and smart contract platforms
2. Financial Instruments – 36.0% of assets; includes DAO governance tokens and staking tokens
3. Digital Currencies – 18.8% of the universe; includes standard monetary protocols, stablecoins, and privacy coins

Sector Level and Thematic Overlays

The DATS construct has 3 supersectors that are further classified into 10 sectors and 42 subsectors. The full constituent counts are available on the Wilshire website with this table showing supersector and sector level classifications and constituents represented.

DATS also has the flexibility to group the 1,000 strong digital asset universe into popular investment themes. The two themes currently available include an Environmentally Focused cut with 33 digital assets and a Decentralized Finance (DeFi) cut with 245 assets that also has seven sub-themes:

• Automated market maker (AMM)
• Asset management
• Derivatives
• Lending and borrowing
• Prediction markets
• Yield Aggregator

Full information on DATS can be found at wilshire.com/dats.

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, $93 billion of which are assets under management.

More information on Wilshire can be found at www.wilshire.com

About DAR

Digital Asset Research (DAR) is a specialist provider of crypto data and research. Since 2017, DAR has combined its expertise in traditional financial services and the crypto space to meet the needs of institutional clients, including asset managers, banks, custodians, family offices, fintech firms, fund administrators, hedge funds, and venture capital firms. DAR’s core offerings include Clean Pricing & Verified Volume Data, a Crypto Events Calendar, a Reference Data Master, an Industry Taxonomy & Taxonomy Themes, Exchange Diligence, and Token Diligence, as well as related crypto market research.

Follow DAR: Twitter: @DAR_crypto; LinkedIn

Contacts

Media Contact – Global
Andrew Dunn

Consultant, Streets Consulting

[email protected]
+44 (0)7917 696 506

Media Contact – US
Amy Bradford

[email protected]
+1 805 256 5674