CME Group goes DeFi: Reference rates and real-time indices of Aave, Curve, Synthetix

“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 Group has 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, which are not tradable futures products, include Aave, Curve, and Synthetix.

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.

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.

CME Group addresses rising interest in DeFi projects

Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products, said: “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. 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.”

Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, added: “This is a natural progression for the CME CF benchmark family. 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.”

In late October, CME Group launched cryptocurrency reference rates and real-time indices of Avalanche (AVAX), Filecoin (FIL), and Tezos (XTZ).