Zainab AsifWorld’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group yesterday revealed its plan to launch bitcoin futures in the last quarter of this year. The new contract will be based on the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and will be settled in cash. Bitcoin futures will be subject to the CME Group rules.
Terry Duffy, CEO of CME Group, said that the group decided to introduce the contract owing to the increasing interest of the clients in cryptocurrency which is evolving at a fast pace. He further added that CME Group being the largest regulated FX marketplace, is the right place to provide investors with a transparent process to invest, risk transfer and price discovery.
CME Group along with Crypto Facilities Ltd. had been publishing BRR and CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI) since last year. BRR is based on IOSCO Principles of Financial Benchmarks and is calculated using the pricing data from Bitstamp, Kraken, itBit, etc. Dr. Timo Schlaefer, CEO of Crypto Facilities Ltd. said that BRR show a transparent and reliable reflection of the global bitcoin dollar and is becoming the choice of price reference for many trading firms and institutions across the globe. On the other hand, BRTI consolidates the global buy and sell demand into an order book that provides the fair price of bitcoin. Since it is published in real time, it is often used in intra-day bitcoin transactions, marking portfolios as well as risk management.
The last few years have seen the boom of cryptocurrency market. Bitcoin holds 54% of this $172 billion market. Read more at cmegroup.com/bitcoinfutures.
Mohith Agadi
