CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, and CF Benchmarks, the leading provider of cryptocurrency benchmark indices, announced plans to launch two new APAC-specific reference rates for bitcoin and ether on September 11 – the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate APAC (BRRAP) and CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate APAC (ETHUSD_AP) – which will provide a once-a-day reference rate for the U.S. dollar price of the two digital assets, published at 4 p.m. Hong Kong/Singapore time.
“These new reference rates are designed to meet the ever-evolving needs of global participants in the growing digital asset space,” said Giovanni Vicioso, Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products at CME Group. “Year-to-date, 37% of total crypto volume at CME Group has been traded during non-U.S. hours, with 11% of trades coming from the APAC region. As we continue to see more institutional clients use our Bitcoin and Ether futures products in active portfolios or structured products like ETFs, these APAC reference rates will allow market participants to more accurately and precisely hedge cryptocurrency price risk with timing more closely aligned to their portfolios.”
These non-tradable reference rates will complement the existing CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF-Ether Dollar Reference Rate (ETHUSD_RR), published at 4 p.m. London time, as well as the recently introduced CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate New York (BRRNY) and CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate New York (ETHUSD_NY), published at 4 p.m. New York time.
The BRR and ETHUS RR will continue to serve as the benchmark rates for settlement of all CME Group Bitcoin futures, Micro Bitcoin futures and Ether futures and Micro Ether futures contracts.
“Crypto adoption continues apace and CF Benchmarks is delighted to facilitate financial institutions in providing regulated financial products to Asian markets with the introduction of APAC variants to our market defining Bitcoin Reference Rate and Ether-Dollar Reference Rate,” said Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks. “As variants these benchmarks will be calculated and administered to the same exacting standards enjoyed by their existing London and New York counterparts, which have done so much to build investor and institutional confidence in crypto financial products.”
Source: CME
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