Goldman Sachs Launches ‘Datonomy’, A Crypto Market Data Feed To Help Institutional Investors Better Understand The Sector
The Wall Street megabank's data feed will help asset management firms and hedge funds research and develop investment strategies for crypto-based products by studying market trends.
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has announced the launch of Datonomy, a new data service system to assist investors in analyzing the crypto market. The crypto asset classification tool developed in partnership with global index provider MSCI and crypto data firm Coin Metrics will give asset management firms and hedge funds a better understanding of cryptocurrencies by providing them with a constant view of the market by tracking trends across the industry.
Datonomy will classify digital assets and services including cryptocurrencies, smart-contract platforms, decentralized finance (DeFi) and Metaverse into different classes, sectors and subsectors. The data feed will categorize the assets based on their objectives, aggregated properties and benchmarking performance.
“The collaboration brings together MSCI’s expertise in critical decision support tools and services, Coin Metrics’ intelligence in the digital assets space, and Goldman Sachs’ innovative platforms paired with over 150 years of experience in financial markets to help solve these problems for clients. Given our commitment to providing developer services, and as a trusted data analytics provider to our institutional clients, creating reliable data services for the emerging digital asset community is a strategic focus and natural extension to our existing business,” said Anne Darling, Head of Marquee Client Strategy and Distribution at Goldman Sachs.
Digital currencies will be divided into Value Transfer Coins and Specialized Coins, which is sub-divided into Meme Coins, Privacy Coins and Remittance Coins. DeFi applications are classified as Decentralized Exchanges (DEX), Derivatives Trading, Decentralized Lending, Stablecoin Issuers, Prediction Markets, Asset Management, Crowdfunding and Insurance. Metaverse services are divided into Virtual Worlds, Gaming and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) ecosystems.
Clients can conduct crypto research and analysis on Datonomy through Goldman Sachs ‘Marquee’ – the bank’s digital marketplace for institutional investors - to launch related investment products. The subscription-based direct data feed which provides token metrics similar to equities in the finance and technology sector, can also be accessed via MSCI and Coin Metrics.
“As a leading provider of crypto financial intelligence, we are committed to bringing transparency into this ever evolving and complex market to help our clients better understand and adopt it. This collaboration represents a significant leap forward for the industry as a whole, establishing a coherent and future-proof structure to monitor and analyze the digital assets ecosystem,” said Tim Rice, CEO of Coin Metrics.
According to the Wall Street banking giant, the cryptocurrency sector has seen tremendous growth since the pandemic. As interest among retail investors are on the rise, valuation of the asset-class has also grown. In 2021, the sector set an all-time high by reaching $3 trillion in total market value. However, due to macroeconomic conditions this year, the cryptocurrency market has dropped significantly. The industry is currently standing at just over $1 trillion in valuation.
“We firmly believe a consistent and standardized framework for the classification of digital assets is essential to support investors' ability to evaluate the market. As a co-founder of the Global Industry Classification Standard, we are leveraging our general experience of what’s worked in equities classification systems to offer an efficient investment tool helping clients to understand digital asset trends, identify investment opportunities, and measure the exposure of their portfolios by sector to uncover drivers of performance and risk,” said the Managing Director of MSCI, Stephane Mattatia.
Goldman Sachs has been an active participant in the crypto sector. Last year, the investment bank formed a crypto trading unit and executed its first trade in the form of a Bitcoin non-deliverable option (NDO) in March. In April, the bank also offered its first ever Bitcoin-backed loan.