Bloomberg has launched a cryptocurrency index in conjunction with Galaxy Digital Capital Management, a digital assets merchant bank headed by billionaire ex-hedge fund manager Michael Novogratz.

The capitalization-weighted Bloomberg Galaxy Crypto Index (BGCI) will track the "performance of the largest, most liquid portion of the cryptocurrency market," specifically following bitcoin, ethereum, ethereum classic, monero, XRP, zcash, EOS, litecoin and dash, according to an announcement.

The companies said in a statement that the index utilizes a "rules-based methodology and data" derived from sources that both companies have scrutinized, though they did not reveal further details.

"The herd is on the move," Novogratz said of the partnership on Twitter. "This is an important piece of the architecture that institutional accounts need to treat crypto as a new asset class."

Bloomberg operates several other indices pertaining to traditional finance, including indices for fixed income index, strategy, commodities and leading global fiat currencies.

"The index brings our rigorous approach to index construction to cryptos and will provide investors with a transparent benchmark to gauge the performance of the broader market," Alan Campbell, Bloomberg Indices' global product manager said in the statement.

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