Bitwise Added NEAR to Several Indices Instead of UNI and AVAX

During the scheduled rebalancing on October 30, NEAR was added to several major Bitwise indices, with the outgoing asset depending on the specific benchmark. The changes were announced on October 22.

The official notice stated: NEAR replaces UNI in the Bitwise 10 Large Cap Crypto Index and the corresponding index excluding Bitcoin, while in the Bitwise 10 Select Large Cap Crypto Index, it replaces AVAX. Additionally, LIT replaces ETHFI in the decentralized finance index. For the BTC/ETH Equal Weight index, no rebalancing was planned in this cycle.

These are composition decisions, but they do not disclose the execution price of the fund's trades, the value of assets tracking each index, or the fact of completed purchases for each Bitwise-branded product.

An index is a measurement framework

An index sets a collection of assets and a method for their weighting and updating. A fund or other investment product may aim to track this framework, but the benchmark and the instrument itself are different things. The SEC's explanation of index funds describes how a product can use different implementation methods and incur costs, causing an investor's return to differ from the published index performance.

Adding an asset can create demand from products obligated to hold the new entrant. The size and timing depend on how much money follows the index, the target weight, and how managers implement the change. Traders may preemptively react to publicly announced rebalancing, so it's hard to judge a simple price reaction by the inclusion date. Removal has the same limitation: it may lead to tracker trades but does not automatically mean the token's technology has failed.

Different outgoing assets show why an accurate benchmark is important: the main large-cap index, the index excluding Bitcoin, and the select index may have different admission rules. To assess exposure, it's useful to look at concentration, frequency of changes, and risks that the rules leave. The inclusion of NEAR is a specific adjustment to Bitwise's benchmark portfolios; claims of inevitable inflows or guaranteed growth require evidence beyond the notice.