CF Benchmarks
CF benchmarks logo

Jan 27, 2025

CFB Talks Digital Assets Episode 36: Goodbye to ‘Random Walks’: How CF Benchmarks built a robust Factor Model for Digital Assets

The potential for factor-based investing to one day be applied to digital assets has long been a tantalizing prospect. But it's not been possible - till now.

CF Benchmarks’ recent report ‘A Factor Model for Digital Assets’ has now demonstrated the existence of ‘classic’ factors, like Momentum, Liquidity, Value and others, within the crypto asset class, beyond any reasonable doubt.

For the clearest possible exploration of our research, the CFB podcast team were stoked to welcome back CF Benchmarks quant and product manager Cristian Isac.

Listen in to their chat to 5x your understanding of Crypto Factors!

Key points discussed include ....

  • Why the pace of institutional participation means the time for a digital asset factor model is now
  • How classic models like CAPM and Fama-French were adapted for crypto’s unique dynamics
  • How our researchers surmounted the data quality challenge, with observations across rebalances, universes, and monetary regimes
  • Impressive results, for example: the risk premium for 'Size' was ~9% annualized, with a Sharpe Ratio of 0.5. For 'Growth', the premium was ~25%, with a Sharpe of 1.5.

All in all, this episode should be essential listening for quants, portfolio managers, and investment professionals in general; anyone, in fact, serious about the evolution of digital asset investing.

Grab that coffee and dive in on your favourite platform!

Listen on Spotify

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Watch on YouTube (Audio)

Listen on Amazon music

Catch all episodes here

Subscribe for updates!


The information contained within is for educational and informational purposes ONLY. It is not intended nor should it be considered an invitation or inducement to buy or sell any of the underlying instruments cited including but not limited to cryptoassets, financial instruments or any instruments that reference any index provided by CF Benchmarks Ltd. This communication is not intended to persuade or incite you to buy or sell security or securities noted within. Any commentary provided is the opinion of the author and should not be considered a personalised recommendation. Please contact your financial adviser or professional before making an investment decision.


Note: Some of the underlying instruments cited within this material may be restricted to certain customer categories in certain jurisdictions.


Sui Chung
Sui Chung

Sui Chung

More on this subject

How CF Benchmarks treats a Bitcoin hard fork: the ECX case

Published thresholds, applied to observed trading, decide whether a new coin earns an index of its own or counts as a distribution in multi-asset indices. The eCash (ECX) fork around 31 October is a live test of both.

Mark Pilipczuk
Mark Pilipczuk

Mark Pilipczuk

12 mins read
CF Institutional Digital Asset Index – Update on the Q3 2026 Reconstitution and Rebalance

Further to the announcement of August 28th, 2026, the Administrator announces that the postponed Q3 2026 Reconstitution and Rebalance of the CF Institutional Digital Asset Index (IDAX) will not be implemented. The Q3 2026 Reconstitution and Rebalance is therefore suspended.

CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks

CF Benchmarks

1 mins read
Changes to the Token Market Price Benchmarks Series - Market Prices – 27 October 2026

Changes to the Token Market Price Benchmarks Series - Market Prices – 27 October 2026

CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks

CF Benchmarks

1 mins read
More posts...

Footer

Legal

Subscribe to our newsletter

The latest news, articles, and resources, sent to your inbox weekly.

By submitting this form, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

Already subscribed? Manage your preferences

© 2026 CF Benchmarks Ltd. All rights reserved.

CF Benchmarks Ltd (“CF Benchmarks”), a company registered in England and Wales with company number 11654816 and authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Information about us can be found on the Financial Services Register (register number 847100).

Registered Office: 6th Floor One London Wall, London, United Kingdom, EC2Y 5EB.

You agree not to, and have no rights to, use the CF Benchmarks Data to create, calculate, issue, settle, maintain, support or develop any financial instruments (including but, without limitation exchange traded products, certificates, warrants, contracts for difference, swaps, binary options, structured products), indices, products, services (including but without limitation, portfolio management services, pre- and post-trade risk management services, or valuation services) or any other derivative works without the express written consent of CF Benchmarks.

You agree not to analyze, reverse-engineer or disassemble any CF Benchmarks data and not to insert any code or product to manipulate the Website content in any way that affects any user’s experience. Unless CF Benchmarks gives you prior written permission, use of any Web browsers (other than generally available third-party browsers), engines, scripts, software, spiders, robots, avatars, agents, tools or other devices or mechanisms (such as crawlers, browser plug-ins and add-ons, or other technology) to navigate, access, copy in bulk, retrieve, harvest, index, search or analyse any portion of the Website is strictly prohibited.

No part of this information may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission of CF Benchmarks Ltd. Use and distribution of the CF Benchmarks data requires a license from CF Benchmarks or its authorized licensing agents.

All information is provided for information purposes only. All information and data contained on this website is obtained by CF Benchmarks, from sources believed by it to be accurate and reliable. Such information and data is provided "as is" without warranty of any kind.

CF Benchmarks, nor its directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors make any claim, prediction, warranty or representation whatsoever, expressly or implied, either as to the accuracy, timeliness, completeness or merchantability of any information or of results to be obtained from the use of the CF Benchmarks indices or the fitness or suitability of the same indices for any particular purpose to which they might be put. Any representation of historical data accessible through CF Benchmarks indices is provided for information purposes only and is not a reliable indicator of future performance.

No responsibility or liability can be accepted by CF Benchmarks nor their respective directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors for any loss or damage in whole or in part caused by, resulting from, or relating to any error (negligent or otherwise) or other circumstance involved in procuring, collecting, compiling, interpreting, analysing, editing, transcribing, transmitting, communicating or delivering any such information or data or from use of this website or links to this website.

CF Benchmarks and its respective directors, officers, employees, partners or licensors do not provide investment advice and nothing accessible through CF Benchmarks, should be taken as constituting financial or investment advice or a financial promotion. Charts and graphs are provided for illustrative purposes only. Index returns shown may not represent the results of the actual trading of any assets.

CF Benchmarks is a member of the Crypto Facilities group of companies which is in turn a member of the Payward, Inc. group of companies.
  • Payward, Inc. is the owner and operator of the Kraken Exchange, a venue that facilitates the trading of cryptocurrencies. The Kraken Exchange is a source of input data for certain CF Benchmarks indices.
  • Payward, Inc. is the owner and operator of the Staked, a venue that operates the block production nodes for decentralized PoS protocols on behalf of institutional investors. Staked.us is a source of input data for certain CF Benchmarks indices.

Please refer to the individual product family documentation for more information about applicable input data sources.

By clicking Accept, you consent to CF Benchmarks's use of cookies.

Visit Cookie Settings to learn how CF Benchmarks uses cookies and to adjust your preferences.

Cookie Settings