CME’s BTC Index Provider CF Benchmarks Wins EU License

CF Benchmarks, CME Group’s Bitcoin (BTC) index provider, received a benchmark license under the European Benchmarks Regulation (EU BMR).

On Sept. 13, CF Benchmarks’ official Twitter account announced that the firm received its license from the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). In the tweet, the firm also claims to be the first cryptocurrency index provider to reach this goal:

“CF Benchmarks is the first #crypto index provider to receive EU BMR authorisation from [the FCA].”

Regulatory future-proofed

According to the report published by financial news outlet Finextra on Sept. 13, the authorization will allow CF Benchmarks to offer its indexes to various regulated companies. More precisely, financial product firms will be free to use these indexes in their products in the EU after the EU BMR comes into full effect in 2020.

The indexes’ applications include issuing, trading and investing in products, using them to define the asset allocation of a portfolio, to measure fund performance, to determine borrowing rates and contract settlement mechanisms. CEO of CF Benchmarks Sui Chung added:

“We are proud to be the first regulated cryptocurrency index provider to meet the EU BMR’s stringent requirements. [...] Reliable and trusted benchmarks are critical to growing the cryptocurrency ecosystem as they attract more individual and institutional investors to the asset class.”

As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, major United States stock exchange Nasdaq has unveiled a decentralized blockchain finance index called Defix (DEFX).