IHS Markit Likely to Join Race for Crypto Indexes on Wall Street: Exec

IHS Markit will likely join the cryptocurrency index game, President of Financial Services Adam Kansler said during the financial information giant's Wednesday earnings call.

Kansler told analysts IHS Markit already has "tactical partnerships" with crypto firms like Lukka to source cryptocurrency pricing and reference data. These data points could form the bedrock of a cryptocurrency index product, although Kansler said IHS Markit currently uses them to help clients value portfolios.

"So it's an area where we’ll continue to focus not just on the valuations side, but probably even moving into the index side in the near future as well," he said, referring to cryptocurrencies.

IHS Markit executives acknowledged Wednesday that bitcoin has generational momentum behind it. Chairman and CEO Lance Uggla said the younger ranks of his firm are chomping for more products in the crypto space, even if the firm has "nothing big and significant" in the pipeline.

"Of course, we have every millennial that works for us [thinking] we should have ... major pricing, data services, software and participation around a marketplace that is really legitimizing itself. So we’ve got to take it seriously," he said.

IHS Markit is barreling toward a stronger stance in crypto on multiple fronts. In November, it partnered with crypto data firm Lukka to develop crypto data products for Wall Street. A unit of S&P Global, which has agreed to buy IHS Markit for $44 billion, already has plans to build a crypto index product with Lukka.

Representatives for IHS Markit and Lukka did not immediately respond to request for comment.