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bne April 2019 Companies & Markets I 25
Cash, Litecoin, ZCash, Stellar, and Ethereum Classic. The top- 30 list is regularly updated based on changes in liquidity and trading volumes, as well as the availability of safe custody.
“We are excited to launch this index with ITI Funds,” said Thomas Kettner, Managing Director at MV Index Solutions (MVIS), which partnered with ITI Funds in the launch. “Starting with nine digital assets, the index is a dynamic instrument which covers the broader market while at the same time staying within the safest and most recognized names of this new asset class.”
The fund works on principles similar to those of common ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds). The idea of the fund is based on
the received wisdom that following a market, or tracking an index, is often more profitable in the long-run than active asset management. However, the idea of an index tracking-style fund in the world of cryptocurrency is still unusual.
The fund’s portfolio is comprised of well-known crypto assets that are eligible for professional custody with the requisite
bne:Tech
insurance. The fund’s assets are secured by a licensed institutional custodian with Lloyds syndicate insurance, which is also unusual for a fund.
The diversity of cryptocurrencies is designed to smooth out the volatility and the maximum weight of any single cryptocurrency in the index is capped at 15%.
Since its inception IFCIF has grown more than 3,100% since the beginning of 2017, compared to Bitcoin’s 600% growth.
“We believe that the next step in the cryptocurrency market evolution will be an institutional investment inflow and that such inflow will only be possible with the new investment products with legally compliant infrastructure that is both transparent and familiar to institutional investors. As such, we have established the ITI Funds Crypto Platform infrastructure starting with the Index Fund. The platform’s principles are similar to those of the general fiat world. If you expect the crypto space to continue its bullish trend, then now may be the right time to invest” Krimskiy said.
Just five Russia-connected companies ranked among world’s top IT service providers
bne IntelliNews
US industry association IAOP has just released a new edition of its annual Global Outsourcing 100 ranking to identify what it judges to be the best IT outsourcing service providers in the world, reports East-West Digital
News (EWDN).
This year’s ranking, unlike for the previous editions, features “companies that have led the development of the industry, as reflected in their place on the past GO100 lists.” Instead of accepting and reviewing new applications, the association has identified the companies, which “have been at the top
of the GO100 for a decade” as well as those, which “have distinguished themselves by evolving from ‘rising stars’ to ‘leaders’” in the previous rankings.
(The rankings of the previous years were based on what the IAOP believes to be the best companies in each of five judging categories: size and growth, customer references, awards and certifications, programs for innovation, and corporate social responsibility.)
Also featured are “advisory firms that have been launched and become leaders over this period.”
Thus, the new ranking features six IT firms headquartered or with significant operations in Russia (by alphabetical order):
• Auriga
• Firstline Software • ICL Services
• Luxoft
• Maykor
• Mera
By comparison, no fewer than 15 Ukrainian or Ukrainian- connected firms are mentioned in IAOP’s new ranking.
In 2017, Russian software companies exported some $5.5bn worth of services, according to industry association Russoft.
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