S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, the company behind various stock market indices today announced that it plans to launch a global cryptocurrency indexing service in 2021.

The service, provided in partnership with crypto data provider Lukka Inc. will provide S&P DJI-branded and customized indexing and benchmarking solutions supported by Lukka’s crypto-asset pricing data.

According to Reuters, the indexes will use data on more than 550 of the top-traded cryptocurrencies. S&P clients will be able to create customized indices and other benchmarking tools on cryptocurrencies. The concept is to provide more reliable pricing data to make it easier for investors to access the cryptocurrency market while reducing some of the risks involved with investing.

“For more than a century, S&P Dow Jones Indices has been a pioneer in creating innovative and relevant indices and benchmarks that reflect the global market’s ongoing growth and evolution,” Peter Roffman, global head of innovation and strategy at S&P Dow Jones Indices, said in a statement. “With digital assets such as cryptocurrencies becoming a rapidly emerging asset class, the time is right for independent, reliable and user-friendly benchmarks.”

The announcement comes after bitcoin continues to trade at near-record highs. After hitting a record high of $19.829.27 Nov. 30, the cryptocurrency has once again teased that level, trading at $19.605.16 at about 11 a.m. EST. The price went higher in Asia, with the Bangkok Post reporting that bitcoin hit a 589,700 Thai baht ($19,857) on Thai exchange Bitkub Friday morning, Dec. 4, local time.

The surge in the price of bitcoin through 2020, currently up about 170% year to date, is being attributed to institutional investors. Yahoo Finance reported more than a dozen Wall Street Firms alone have invested in Grayscale’s Bitcoin Investment Trust, a publicly traded fund pegged to the price of bitcoin.

Mainstream companies providing support for bitcoin is also playing a notable role. Payments provider Square Inc. announced in October that it had invested $50 million in bitcoin and also reported a massive surge in revenue Nov. 5 based on its bitcoin support.

Arguably the biggest boost has come from PayPal Inc. which announced a soft launch of its cryptocurrency service Oct. 21 before expanding the service to all eligible account holders in the U.S. Nov. 12. PayPal’s cryptocurrency service allows users to buy, hold and sell for bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin within their existing PayPal accounts.

Bitcoin was trading at $19,396.26 as of about 9 p.m. EST, according to data from Coindesk.

Photo: Pixabay