CME Group will launch BTC and ETH reference rates for Asian investors.

CME Group to launch BTC and ETH reference rates for Asian investors.

Author: JESSE COGHLAN, COINTELEGRAPH; Translation: Song Xue, LianGuai

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is launching Bitcoin and Ethereum reference rates for the Asia-Pacific region, another sign of increasing interest in cryptocurrencies by Asian institutions.

On August 16th, the CME Group announced that it is partnering with cryptocurrency index provider CF Benchmarks to launch two cryptocurrency reference rates focused on the Asia-Pacific region on September 11th.

Reference rates are used as reliable sources for cryptocurrency prices and are used for pricing and settlement of cryptocurrency futures contracts (in the case of CME).

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The CME stated that starting from September 11th, Asian cryptocurrency institutions and investors will have access to two reference rates tracking BTC and ETH, which will be published daily at 4 PM Hong Kong time.

The CME already has reference rates for these two cryptocurrencies, but sometimes the published rates are more suitable for investors in the New York and London time zones.

Giovanni Viciioso, Head of Cryptocurrency Products at CME, stated that 37% of their cryptocurrency trading volume this year has occurred outside of the US, with 11% coming from the Asia-Pacific region.

Viciioso said, “These Asia-Pacific reference rates will allow market participants to hedge cryptocurrency price risks more accurately and the timing of rate publication will be more consistent with their portfolios.”

Markus Thielen, Research Director at Matrixport, stated that the reference rates show an increasing demand from institutions in the Asia-Pacific region for accurate BTC and ETH prices during Asian trading hours.

Institutions will use the daily prices of investment products – he believes that the end investors of these institutions may now have a greater demand for these products.

The CME and digital asset market index provider CF also have reference rates and real-time indices for metaverse-related tokens such as Axie Infinity Shards, Chiliz (CHZ), and Decentraland.

The company’s other reference rates aggregate cryptocurrency spot trading volumes from Bitstamp, Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken, aiming to provide reliable reference prices.

These rates are used for settlement of futures contracts, including CME’s Bitcoin and Ethereum futures products, which settle based on London time reference rates.

Institutions have been paying attention to cryptocurrency-friendly jurisdictions such as Hong Kong and Singapore, both of which have taken significant steps to provide clear regulations for cryptocurrency businesses.

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