Even as India is working on legislation to ban cryptocurrency trading, an index that tracks the performance of major cryptos has been launched in the country.
What Happened: Cryptowire, a cryptocurrency app promoted by financial content provider TickerPlant, has launched India’s first cryptocurrency index called the IC15.
The IC15 is a rule-based broad market index by market capitalization that tracks the performance of widely traded liquid cryptocurrencies in the world, Cryptowire said. The purpose is to help crypto investors and investment managers monitor the performance of cryptocurrencies traded globally.
The base date of the index is April 1, 2018 and the base value is 10,000. It is denominated in the U.S. dollar. The index tracks a basket of 15 cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC), Ethereum (CRYPTO: ETH), Binance Coin (CRYPTO: BNB), Solana (CRYPTO: SOL), Cardano (CRYPTO: ADA), Shiba Inu (CRYPTO: SHIB) and Dogecoin (CRYPTO: DOGE) among others. The index, however, does not include stable coins such as Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) and USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC).
Bitcoin has the highest weighting of 51.57%, and among the altcoin, Ethereum and Binance Coin have weightings of 25.79% and 5.03%, respectively. The remaining coins have less than 5% weighting each in the index.
Related Link: An India’s Ruling Party’s Economic Group Demands A Crypto Ban, Will The Government Comply?
Why It’s Important: The launch of the index assumes importance because India has one of the highest number of crypto investors in the world.
India’s lawmakers are mulling a ban of all private cryptocurrencies, and a crypto bill to this effect was sent for approval to the Cabinet recently. India’s central bank, meanwhile, is working on a centralized national digital currency.
“With the launch of India’s first index of crypto IC15, we intend to complete the knowledge circle for the entire crypto and blockchain ecosystem, said Jigish Sonagara, CEO of CryptoWire.
“This will not only push the ‘learn before earn’ initiative, but also serve the industry with yet another powerful intervention,” he added.
Related Link: 2022 Begins With A Whimper For Most Cryptos, But 2 Currencies Are Making Strong Gains
