Derivatives marketplace CME Group will introduce reference rates for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) for the Asia Pacific area.
CME Group announced on that the new reference rates would go live on September 11. According to Giovanni Vicioso, senior director for digital currency products at CME Group, the most recent reference rates intends to answer the evolving needs of multinational players in the developing digital asset business.
Vicioso noted that around 37% of their Bitcoin deals this year took place after regular business hours in the United States, with a significant 11% coming from the APAC region.
He added that integrating APAC reference rates would enable market participants to more effectively hedge against volatility in bitcoin prices, better synchronizing with their portfolio timings.
For the APAC area, reference rates from CME will be used to emphasize pricing settlements of cryptocurrency futures contracts. Each day around 4 PM Hong Kong time, they will be released with a BTC and ETH concentration.
Other reference rates for BTC and ETH, issued under the London and New York time zones, are available from the corporation. CME also offers reference rates for other metaverse initiatives, such as Axie Infinity Shards, Chiliz (CHZ), and Decentraland (MANA).
The company has been assisting traders and investors worldwide by offering various data, such as reference rates applicable to cryptocurrency spot exchanges like Coinbase, Gemini, and Kraken.
The pricing settlement of futures contracts, including the Bitcoin and Ether futures products offered by CME, typically uses these rates. Different Asian nations, like Hong Kong and Singapore, have been building robust cryptocurrency ecosystems over the past few months. The recent introduction of CME is in line with the present expansion of the cryptocurrency market in the Asian region.
