Goldman Sachs to Propose Crypto Classification System

Goldman Sachs is making a bid to standardize the way the financial industry talks about, tracks and invests in the burgeoning universe of digital assets, according to a report from CNBC. The investment bank is set to unveil a data service created with global index provider MSCI and crypto data firm Coin Metrics that seeks to classify hundreds of digital coins and tokens so institutional investors can make sense of the new asset class. The new service is called Datonomy — a play on the word taxonomy, which is the branch of science concerned with naming and classifying the natural world — and can be accessed as a subscription-based data feed or through Marquee, which is Goldman’s digital storefront for institutional investors. The three companies have divided the digital assets world into classes, sectors and subsectors, depending on how the tokens or coins are used. Doing so will allow money managers at hedge funds and asset management companies to be able to think about crypto in a more granular way, similar to how equities can be discussed as industry sectors like finance or technology, or themes like growth versus value stocks. Users can tap the data feed to help with analysis and research, as well as benchmarking performance, managing portfolios or creating investment products based on sectors including decentralized finance, metaverse, smart contract platforms or value transfer coins.