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Polygon becomes part of Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index
NEW DELHI: Homegrown crypto startup, Polygon, has become part of the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index (BITX), which tracks the returns of the 10 largest crypto assets, as measured and weighted by free-float market capitalisation. Bitwise Asset Management, which manages the index, is a crypto-specialist asset manager, with assets under management (AUM) worth $1.5 billion.
As part of the May month-end index reconstitution process, Polygon (formerly Matic) entered the index, which also constitutes Bitcoin, Ethereum, Chainlink, Bitcoin cash and Litecoin, among other crypto assets. Polygon replaced crypto token Aave in the May reconstitution and rebalancing of the index.
Index constituents are screened every month for liquidity, custody, and other risks, and rebalanced.
The current index value stands at 46,473 with a market capitalisation of $1.12 trillion. The index has surged 64.79% on a year-to-date basis against a 29.87% rise in Bitcoin.
In recent times the demand for layer 2 scaling solution is attracting capital inflows, which is, in turn, has been fueling the rise in Matic tokens, which is the native cryptocurrency of Polygon.
Polygon has a 1.03% weightage in the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index, while Bitcoin has a weight of 63.92% and Ethereum 28.85%.
The Bitwise 10 Crypto Index Fund, available to pre-selected investors and institutions, seeks to track the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index. The AUM of the fund is $817 million and has delivered 369% returns in the past year.
Polygon, which was co-founded in 2017 by three Indian software engineers — Jaynti Kanani, Sandeep Nailwal, and Anurag Arjun, is a layer 2 Ethereum scaling solution. The company aims to improve the usability and convenience of the current decentralized ecosystem.
The rise in Matic’s price has turned its co-founders into India’s first crypto billionaires, part of it stemming from their current stakes in the cryptocurrency at around 4-5%. Billionaire investor Mark Cuban of Shark Tank fame, who is also the owner of NBA team Dallas Mavericks, recently invested an undisclosed sum into Polygon.
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The Node: How Do You Know Crypto Is Winning? Look Where the Talent Is Going
Then there are the regulators who have made their home at crypto upstarts. Former acting Comptroller of the Currency Brian Brooks took charge at Binance.US the same day former top U.S. commodities regulator Chris Giancarlo joined BlockFi’s five-person board.
These are figures who, as part of their remit, had large swaths of the economy under their supervision and identified the most dynamic and personally rewarding opportunities as being in crypto.
“The internet is a remarkable social and technological phenomenon. It’s by no means seen its course. What it’s done first to information then to retail and transportation, it’s now doing in financial services in a very broad way,” Giancarlo said the morning of his announcement, on CoinDesk TV.
These human flows demonstrate the viability of what’s being built in crypto. Capital deployment is a big indicator, and there are crypto projects doing big numbers. But that’s all a calculated risk, a gamble, a hope for yield in an economy where everything seems to offer returns. Tomorrow Tesla could announce it sold its BTC horde.
Human beings taking jobs in crypto is different. It’s stickier. But it also gives a peek into the industry’s dynamics. People may be motivated by competitive salaries or startup equity, but they may also have harder-to-define motivations, such as a belief or feeling that crypto is the future.
Employment reports consistently show blockchain skills are in high demand.
“The bitcoin and crypto industry has the highest asymmetry opportunity in any industry, so it is not surprising to see thousands of people moving from legacy businesses to these disruptive upstarts,” the influential Anthony Pompliano said over email.
Pomp kicked up a crypto jobs board four months ago to help place the experienced and inexperienced in open crypto roles. He says 50,000 people have already applied for positions, and as many as 20 people have been hired.
Mike Wen recently left Apple to go “all in on crypto.” He says he followed a familiar path for millennials: used BTC to buy a fake ID in 2014, invested in “the next wave” in 2017 and started to get curious again about DeFi in 2020. And now he’s hooked.