CME Group and CF Benchmarks to Launch Three New DeFi Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices on December 19

CHICAGO and LONDON, Dec. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, and CF Benchmarks, the leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmark indices, today announced plans to launch three new DeFi reference rates and real-time indices, which will be calculated and published daily by CF Benchmarks, beginning December 19.

These reference rates and indices are not tradable futures products. They include the following:

“In response to rising interest in DeFi projects, CME Group, in partnership with CF Benchmarks, will expand its suite of regulated, non-tradable Cryptocurrency Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices to include three new DeFi tokens,” said Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products. “These three new benchmarks, together with Uniswap launched earlier this year, will capture more than 40% of the total value locked in DeFi protocols on the Ethereum blockchain. Additionally, these rates are designed to provide traders, institutions and other users transparency and price discovery across a much broader range of tokens, allowing them to confidently and more accurately value cryptocurrency sector specific portfolios and manage price risk around various blockchain-based projects.”

CME CF Reference Rates and Real-Time Indices are based on robust methodologies that have regular expert oversight and are designed to meet the growing need for transparent, regulated and round-the-clock pricing.

Several leading crypto exchanges and trading platforms will provide pricing data for these new benchmarks, starting initially with Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, itBit, Kraken, and LMAX Digital. Each coin will trade on a minimum of two of these constituent exchanges.

“This is a natural progression for the CME CF benchmark family,” said Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks. “Investors have access to a growing range of pricing indices that provide exposure to new verticals within the cryptocurrency asset class. DeFi protocols provide users with direct access to financial services and products built on open-source technology, with the associated tokens increasingly relevant as Web3 continues to gain adherents. In partnership with CME Group, CF Benchmarks is proud to provide investors with transparent pricing for these assets through its robust and resilient benchmarks.”

Each of these new reference rates will provide the U.S. dollar price of each digital asset, published once-a-day at 4 p.m. London time, while each respective real-time index will be published once per second, 24 hours a day, 365 days per year.

For more information on these products, please visit www.cmegroup.com/cryptobenchmarks.   

About CME Group

As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex® platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and, E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec and EBS are trademarks of BrokerTec Europe LTD and EBS Group LTD, respectively. Dow Jones, Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and S&P are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC and S&P/Dow Jones Indices LLC, as the case may be, and have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

About CF Benchmarks

CF Benchmarks is the leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmark indices, authorised and regulated by the UK FCA under the EU BMR. Composed of market data from six constituent exchanges, its benchmark indices are provided through public methodologies and transparent governance, for tracking, valuing and settling risk in cryptocurrency financial services and products. CF Benchmarks’ indices have been used to settle over $500bn of cryptocurrency derivative contracts listed for trading by CME Group and Kraken Futures.

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SOURCE CME Group