Payments & Fintech
Consumer and B2B transaction volume as an asset class: networks, processors, issuers, and the crypto on-ramp. Networks are the quality core; processors and PYPL carry the disruption discount.
+4.1% 20d vs FW 3000
Financials Thematic basket
Crypto Financialization
Crypto as listed equity beta: exchanges and brokers monetizing volume, stablecoin float income under the GENIUS Act framework, corporate token treasuries, and miners whose power portfolios double as AI-datacenter optionality. The sector's cash flows are increasingly regulated and real, but the basket still trades as high-beta bitcoin in equity wrappers — which is the point: it is the cleanest read on speculative appetite in the tape.
1 day+3.5%basket return
20 days-24.0%basket return
20 days vs FW 3000-24.4%relative return
Year to date+3.4%basket return
Performance
Follow the theme against the wider market.
Crypto FinancializationFW 3000
Series before each basket's creation date are a backtest of the membership as of creation; live tracking starts at creation.
| Return | 1 day | 5 days | 20 days | 60 days | MTD | YTD | 1 year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Basket | +3.5% | +0.0% | -24.0% | -12.5% | -15.4% | +3.4% | -30.6% |
| vs FW 3000 | +2.8% | -0.7% | -24.4% | -15.7% | -16.6% | -8.7% | -39.5% |
Risk statistics
Period
1y · 2025-10-21 – 2026-10-21 · 252 / 252 sessions
Sharpe ratio-0.27Annualized · 0% risk-free rate
Sortino ratio-0.39Annualized · 0% downside target
Historical volatility62.6%Annualized · daily log returns
Basket total returns · Annualized using 252 trading sessions · 0% risk-free rate and downside target. As of 2026-10-21 · close.
How these statistics are calculated
Risk methodology
Sharpe: average daily simple return divided by its sample standard deviation, multiplied by √252. The risk-free rate is assumed to be 0%; this is not a cash-adjusted ratio.
Sortino: average daily simple return divided by downside deviation, multiplied by √252. Downside deviation is the square root of the average squared shortfall below 0%, counting all sessions, including zeros for gains.
Historical volatility: √(252 × average squared daily log return), matching the Vol page’s realized-volatility convention. This differs from the sample standard deviation used in Sharpe.
Each period requires complete history and at least 5 sessions. MTD and YTD follow the calendar; 1y is 252 sessions. Missing data or an undefined ratio displays — with a reason. Short periods can produce unstable ratios; intraday snapshots include a partial session. History before this basket’s creation is backtested. If a new basket has no stored daily return series yet, estimates from its rounded published chart levels are marked ≈.
Inside the basket · 16 stocks
Current members and the reasoning behind each inclusion. Returns are for individual holdings.
| Why it’s included | Added | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PYPLPayPal Holdings, Inc. | PYUSD stablecoin and crypto on/off-ramps across a two-sided network — the diluted leg | +0.1% | +2.0% | +8.9% | -1.2% | 2026-07-21 |
| XYZBlock, Inc. | Corporate bitcoin holder plus Cash App bitcoin rails and Proto mining hardware (Block) | +0.1% | +3.1% | +4.7% | +20.2% | 2026-07-21 |
| CRCLCircle Internet Group | Stablecoin pure play: USDC float income at scale (Circle) | +4.5% | +12.8% | -2.2% | +13.1% | 2026-07-21 |
| MSTRStrategy Inc | The archetype bitcoin treasury — leveraged BTC per share (Strategy) | +7.5% | +7.1% | -5.4% | +1.0% | 2026-07-21 |
| COINCoinbase Global, Inc. | The regulated exchange: spot, derivatives, USDC economics and custody for the ETF complex | +3.6% | +2.4% | -10.6% | -21.7% | 2026-07-21 |
| HOODRobinhood Markets, Inc. | Retail flow aggregator — crypto is the margin driver, plus tokenization and prediction-market optionality | +3.8% | +0.8% | -16.9% | -9.9% | 2026-07-21 |
| CORZCore Scientific, Inc. | Miner turned AI-datacenter landlord — shareholders chose independence over the CoreWeave takeout (Core Scientific) | +3.3% | +5.5% | -21.3% | -2.1% | 2026-07-21 |
| WULFTeraWulf Inc. | Zero-carbon mining and HPC hosting (TeraWulf) | +6.3% | +10.6% | -22.0% | +11.1% | 2026-07-21 |
| HUTHut 8 Corp. | Power-first miner with the American Bitcoin stake (Hut 8) | +3.7% | -4.4% | -30.1% | +55.8% | 2026-07-21 |
| GLXYGalaxy Digital | Institutional crypto merchant bank plus the Helios AI-datacenter conversion (Galaxy) | +7.4% | -5.6% | -34.3% | -24.3% | 2026-07-21 |
| CLSKCleanSpark, Inc. | Efficiency-focused pure miner (CleanSpark) | +3.8% | -5.2% | -39.5% | -13.5% | 2026-07-21 |
| MARAMarathon Digital Holdings, Inc. | Largest listed miner: HODL balance sheet plus a grid-services power book | +4.2% | -5.3% | -41.6% | -13.3% | 2026-07-21 |
| RIOTRiot Platforms, Inc. | Mining scale with AI/HPC conversion optionality at Corsicana | +1.8% | -7.2% | -43.2% | +10.7% | 2026-07-21 |
| GEMIGemini Space Station, Inc. | Exchange and custody challenger (Gemini) | +0.9% | -18.1% | -43.7% | -68.1% | 2026-07-21 |
| CIFRCipher Mining Inc. | Mining plus HPC hosting contracts (Cipher) | +2.8% | -8.1% | -50.2% | -38.1% | 2026-07-21 |
| BMNR | The ether treasury analogue (Bitmine) | — | — | — | — | 2026-07-21 |
Excluded from the series because price data is missing: BMNR.
No longer in the selected universe; awaiting membership review: BMNR.
Partial price histories: CIFR from 2020-10-20, COIN from 2021-04-14, CORZ from 2024-01-24, CRCL from 2025-06-04, GEMI from 2025-09-12, HOOD from 2021-07-29.
How this basket is built
Equal-weighted; monthly rebalance, buy-and-hold between rebalances; dated membership changes reset the target weights.
Tracked since 2026-07-21. Membership decisions are documented below.
Read the methodology →Reading the returns
Basket returns include dividends. “vs FW 3000” compares the basket’s compounded growth with the benchmark’s. Green means positive; red means negative.
Cross-checked against BITQ. Daily return correlation: 0.97 across 1367 sessions. the pure-play crypto-equity index; holds many of the same names plus foreign-listed miners (IREN, BTDR) outside our US-only universes
Membership history & changes
Membership history
- create
Initial composition: 16 names — exchanges/brokers (COIN, HOOD), diluted S&P payment rails with real crypto books (XYZ, PYPL), stablecoins (CRCL), merchant banking (GLXY, GEMI), token treasuries (MSTR, BMNR), and the miner complex with its AI-conversion optionality (MARA, RIOT, CLSK, CORZ, CIFR, WULF, HUT). Reference pinned to BITQ. Considered and excluded: IREN, BTDR and BLSH (foreign-domiciled, outside the FW 3000), APLD (now an AI-datacenter landlord, no longer a crypto business), SBET and BTBT (sub-scale ether treasuries — BMNR carries that leg), CME (crypto futures are a small slice of a rates/equities franchise; it stays in capital-markets), and BLK/BK (ETF issuance and custody economics too diluted to read).