Resources & documentation

An index provider writes the rules that say how a market, or part of a market, is measured. It publishes what is in each index, the rules for entry and exit, and how the index level is calculated.

An index provider does not hold assets, does not run products, and does not sell anything to investors.

An asset manager does the opposite. It builds and runs products. If a product tracks an index, the asset manager licenses the index rules and stays fully responsible for the product, how it is sold, and its regulatory status.

For tokenised shares this line is easy to blur, because the same onchain technology can support both jobs. Iceberg Finance stays on the measurement and technology side only. We design rules-based methodologies and license them, with the supporting technology, to regulated institutions.

An index is a measuring tool, not a product. This page is educational only and is not a recommendation.

A rules-based index sets out, in writing and in advance, what a security must do to enter the index, what causes it to leave, and how weights are set. Apply the rules to the eligible universe on the review date and you get the composition. Anyone with the same data can reproduce it.

A discretionary index lets a committee or a person choose constituents on judgement. That makes the index depend on who is choosing, and harder to check, copy and compare over time.

Most established methodologies are rules-based with a short, published list of exceptions: corporate actions, delistings, trading suspensions, or an instrument no longer being available.

Iceberg Finance follows that pattern. We use no judgement in ordinary constituent selection, and the exceptions are written down in the methodology.

Tokenisation does not change what an index measures. A thematic equity index still measures a set of companies using published rules. What changes is which shares can actually be used.

The tokenised share market has grown quickly through 2026, with instruments issued by platforms such as Ondo Global Markets (Ondo Stocks), Backed xStocks and Securitize. They are named here only to describe the wider market. This is not a claim of any partnership with, or endorsement by, Iceberg Finance.

Compared with traditional stock markets, this universe is younger, narrower and less liquid. A company can fit a theme perfectly and still be left out, simply because no liquid tokenised version of it exists at the review date.

Index rules must deal with that directly: eligibility screens tied to availability and liquidity, caps per company and per sector to limit concentration in a thin market, and buffers that keep an existing constituent in place near the threshold to limit turnover.

Faster settlement and round-the-clock trading change day-to-day operations. They do not change the measurement discipline.

A rebalance is the scheduled moment when the index rules are applied again to the eligible universe. Constituents that no longer qualify leave, newly eligible ones enter, and weights are reset.

Two dates matter. The review date is when the data is observed and the rules are applied. The effective date is when the new composition starts counting in the published index. The gap between them gives licensees notice of what will change.

We announce composition changes before the effective date. Afterwards we publish the new composition, alongside an archive of past reviews.

Changes can also happen between reviews — mergers, delistings, trading suspensions, or a stock no longer being available in tokenised form. These follow written exception rules, with advance notice where possible.

Our cadence is quarterly. Effective dates are published by the Index Committee ahead of each review.

Transparency in an index has three parts. The rules must be published. The current composition must be visible. And the data behind the index level must be traceable.

We intend to give licensees index level data, constituent data, historical series and corporate-action records through a documented data interface. The same records will feed the public composition pages.

Onchain instruments allow one more layer. Tokenisation platforms can publish attestations — proof-of-reserve style checks that the shares behind a token really exist. Our intent is to use independent verification of this kind. No such arrangement is confirmed at this stage.

We build our governance and transparency framework to follow internationally recognised benchmark standards. We are not yet certified or formally assessed against them.