Goldman Sachs, MSCI, and Coin Metrics Collaborate to Introduce Datonomy™, a Taxonomy of Digital Assets

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov 3, 2022--

Today, Goldman Sachs, MSCI, and Coin Metrics announced the launch of datonomy, a new classification system for the digital assets market. Delivered as a new data service, datonomy classifies coins and tokens based on how they are used. Designed to provide a consistent, standardized way to help market participants view and analyze the digital assets ecosystem, datonomy will help create an increased level of transparency into how the market is moving and can be licensed for a variety of use cases, such as the review and assessment of portfolio performance and reporting.

MSCI is the owner and sole administrator of this new classification system and may receive input on potential changes from the datonomy Advisory Board (“Advisory Board”) as well as other market participants. The Advisory Board members will be comprised of Goldman Sachs, MSCI, and Coin Metrics, in addition to third-party members that can provide expertise on maintaining datonomy. Inaugural third-party members will be announced at a later date.

The digital assets space has rapidly expanded over the last few years, with constant innovation through the creation of new protocols and applications. Digital assets participants are keen to understand this market across its wide variety of use cases, allocate capital, and manage investments. As the asset class evolves further and market volatility continues, there is an increased need for performance tracking and risk management in digital asset markets. To do this effectively, market participants need help navigating the universe of digital assets and organizing these assets into categories to better define their risk profile and understand their returns. Datonomy has been designed to fill this gap as the digital assets market matures and can serve directly as the basis for portfolio management, reporting, benchmarking, research, and analysis.

“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 this problem for clients,” remarked Anne Marie Darling, Head of Marquee Client Strategy and Distribution at Goldman Sachs. “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.”

This new classification system for digital assets aims to provide market participants with a consistent view of the market, allowing them to track trends across different industries, such as Smart Contract Platforms and Decentralized Finance, screen assets by a range of different filters based on their objectives, and understand aggregated properties of these assets at the portfolio level.

“We firmly believe a consistent and standardized framework for the classification of digital assets is essential to support investors’ ability to evaluate the market,” said Stéphane Mattatia, Managing Director, Global Head of Derivatives Licensing and Thematic Indexes at MSCI. “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.”

“As the 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,” said Tim Rice, CEO of Coin Metrics. “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.”

Datonomy can be accessed as a direct data subscription feed from Goldman Sachs, MSCI, and Coin Metrics.

For more information please visit: https://developer.gs.com/discover/datonomy

About Goldman Sachs

The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. is a leading global financial institution that delivers a broad range of financial services across investment banking, securities, investment management and consumer banking to a large and diversified client base that includes corporations, financial institutions, governments and individuals. Founded in 1869, the firm is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in all major financial centers around the world.

About MSCI

MSCI is a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community. With over 50 years of expertise in research, data and technology, we power better investment decisions by enabling clients to understand and analyze key drivers of risk and return and confidently build more effective portfolios. We create industry-leading research-enhanced solutions that clients use to gain insight into and improve transparency across the investment process. To learn more, please visit www.msci.com.

About Coin Metrics

Coin Metrics is the leading provider of crypto financial intelligence, offering network data, market data, indexes and network risk solutions to the most prestigious institutions touching cryptoassets. Established in 2017, Coin Metrics is committed to building the crypto economy on a foundation of truth, providing authentic and accurate data with the highest standards of clarity and precision. Coin Metrics puts unparalleled insight and accuracy into crypto data and analytics so that companies can accelerate value creation and minimize risk. For more information, visit www.coinmetrics.io.

This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements relate to future events or performance and involve risks that may cause actual results or performance differ materially and you should not place undue reliance on them. Risks that could affect results or performance are in MSCI’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the most recent fiscal year ended on December 31 that is filed with the SEC. MSCI does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements. No information herein constitutes investment advice or should be relied on as such. MSCI grants no right or license to use its products or services without an appropriate license. MSCI MAKES NO EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE OR OTHERWISE WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION HEREIN AND DISCLAIMS ALL LIABILITY TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW.

View source version on businesswire.com:https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20221103005475/en/

CONTACT: Goldman Sachs

Nick Carcaterra

nick.carcaterra@gs.com

MSCI

Melanie Blanco

melanie.blanco@msci.com

Coin Metrics

Jamie Lovegrove

jamie.lovegrove@coinmetrics.io

KEYWORD: UNITED STATES NORTH AMERICA NEW YORK

INDUSTRY KEYWORD: DATA ANALYTICS CRYPTOCURRENCY FINANCE BANKING DATA MANAGEMENT PROFESSIONAL SERVICES TECHNOLOGY DIGITAL CASH MANAGEMENT/DIGITAL ASSETS

SOURCE: Goldman Sachs Group, Inc.

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