These 5 stocks are featured in a new blockchain index — and they're all on a tear

Reality Shares and Nasdaq announced the launch of an index to track companies in the booming blockchain industry.
Blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum, has become a popular buzzword on Wall Street as the prices of digital coins and tokens continue to climb.
The Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index includes a wide-range of companies across sectors.

Exchange operator Nasdaq and Reality Shares, an investment marketplace, unveiled a new index on Monday designed to capture the growth of blockchain technology.

The smart-beta index called the Reality Shares Nasdaq Blockchain Economy Index, is planned to provide the basis for an exchange-traded fund by Reality Shares, according to a press release about the new index. The ETF has already been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Reality Shares.

Blockchain is best known for being the technology underlying cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, but it could have applications outside of cryptocurrencies.

Jonathan Johnson, the head of Medici Ventures, a VC subsidiary of Overstock, a company in the index, told Business Insider blockchain could potentially have the same kind of impact as the internet.

As a decentralized ledger, blockchain can facilitate exchanges of assets without the need of a middle-man. As such, it has gripped the attention of Wall Street with companies such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and Morgan Stanley all participating in at least one blockchain .

But the new index includes a wide-range of companies, according to Reality Shares. Following are five companies featured on the index's site.

HIVE Blockchain Technologies

Ticker:HIVE

Market cap: $320 million

Year-to-date stock performance: 3,204%

Index description:

"HIVE Blockchain Technologies is building a bridge from the blockchain sector to traditional capital markets. The company has strategically partnered with Genesis Mining Ltd., the world’s leading cryptocurrency mining hashrate provider, to build the next generation of blockchain infrastructure."

Accenture

Ticker:ACN

Market cap: $111.8 billion

Year-to-date stock performance: 24.8%

Index description:

Accenture is working closely with leaders from across a broad range of industries, governments, consortia, the academic community, and its key technology alliances to move blockchain technology forward so that, ultimately, it can help improve the way the world lives and works.

Hitachi

Ticker:HIT

Market cap: $38 billion

Year-to-date stock performance: 33.5%

Index description:

"Hitachi is a founding member of the Hyperledger Project and consortium, and has partnered with Tech Bureau to use the NEM-based Mijin Blockchain platform for Hitachi’s point management solution “PointInfinity,” which serve 150 million members and users."

Overstock

Ticker: OSTK

Market cap: $1.32 billion

Year-to-date stock performance: 190%

Index description:

"Overstock operates the tZERO exchange, which has been at at the forefront of the blockchain revolution for years, working closely with regulators since 2015 – launching the world’s first SEC-compliant ATS for blockchain assets, the first private blockchain bond offering, and the first ever public issuance of a blockchain security."

SAP

Ticker:SAP

Market cap: $138 billion

Year-to-date stock performance: 26.38%

Index description: