CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 84
The SEC’s broader signaling on crypto investment products - meaning chiefly ETFs - throughout the half year, has been a reminder of its more customary cautious footing.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 83
BlackRock's IBIT marks another month of record inflows; with record-low volatility. We launch more regulated staking benchmarks, this time for Aptos. And get a summary of our research team's essential primer on XRP.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 82
BlackRock's alternative tack to get In-Kind over the line | How the 'Retail' / 'Institutional' dichotomy is fracturing | CFB partners with Crypto Insights Group | Daily CFB data now available on X/Twitter
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 81
We're enormously proud to win ETF.com's Index Provider of the Year Award!
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 80
One way or another, quite remarkably, the crypto ETP class has continued to progressively evolve, despite political, geopolitical, and consequent market flux we’ve seen over the last several months. Those hard-won origins have come in handy.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 79
Digital assets have accelerated the re-calibration of their own place in the risk spectrum after the actual tariff hammer fall; a process already underway during the months-long escalation of trade tensions.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 78
Just like for all other CME digital asset products, settlement is based on CF Benchmarks' methodology. In the case of Solana futures, their index is our regulated CME CF Solana Dollar-Reference Rate (SOLUSD_RR).
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 77
The much anticipated rethink of crypto market and asset oversight appears to be well underway, though geopolitical uncertainty means optimism on the outlook for the asset class hasn't been enough to support prices.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 76
Despite the deluge of crypto ETF applications landing at the SEC throughout January, one of the most consequential filings wasn’t a request for permission to launch a fund.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 75
As the SEC reviews a 'New Wave' of crypto ETF filings, some face a tougher path to approval than others • Summarized: a new Factor Model for digital assets, and a new Framework for Ethereum Staking Rewards • Plus, are Bitcoin bulls waiting in the wings?
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 74
Whilst the outcome of the US election may have been a surprise for some, the follow-on reaction by ‘risky’ assets broadly, including the digital class, was well within the range of widely trailed expectations.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 73
Just over a month after Bitcoin Friday futures (BFF) became the latest addition to the CME Group’s suite of regulated crypto products, a potentially significant distribution partner has emerged for BFF and CME digital asset products as a whole.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 72
We spotlight what CME Group called its most successful crypto product launch ever, Bitcoin Friday futures; the granting of regulatory approval for options on BlackRock’s IBIT, and we offer our take on Bitwise's filing for a spot XRP ETF.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 71
Inevitably, cross-market attention has been fixated on Federal Reserve policy probabilities and implications in recent weeks, leaving large cap crypto, like most other risk assets, in a proto funk in the run-up to the decision.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 70
Following the transitional events for crypto of the year so far, institutionalisation has continued to cogently evolve, with a view to further fill out the infrastructure one would expect to see for any emerging asset or financial product class.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 69
The top end of new Ether funds, represented by BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA), and Bitwise’s Ethereum ETF (ETHW), comfortably join the echelons of ETFs evincing a faster-than-historical-average pace of asset gathering.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 68 - Ether ETF Launch Edition
Despite the slower start of the second crypto asset to reach Wall Street, even Ether's more modest indicative fund distribution profile suggests the most pessimistic expectations on flows may prove to be undercooked.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 67
The ‘main case’ remains, from our perspective, that Ether ETFs are on track for full approval and listing – relatively imminently.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 66
The launch of spot Ether ETFs in the U.S. remains locked-on.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 65
The chief beneficiary of shifting spot Bitcoin fund allocations is BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, the biggest member of our ‘BRRNY Six', in assets under management (AuM) terms.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 64
Even a cursory examination of volume and flow data shuts down suggestions that the establishment of this new investment product class happened with anything short of demand that was quantifiably above historical norms. (AKA, it was a crushing success.)
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 63
'Liquidity drought’ or not, large institutions have embarked on a wave of plans to install the infrastructure for the mass adoption they’re clearly convinced is just downwind.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 62
Although PayPal’s move is widely recognized as a potentially important inflection point for broad-scale adoption, for more informed digital asset participants, it’s seen as somewhat less remarkable, in context.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 61
CF Benchmarks’ transparent, regulated Benchmark Methodologies and governance policies, are as rules-based for our DeFi benchmarks, as they are for all of our other indices.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 60
Record open interest in CME crypto contracts both BTC and ETH, futures and options...argue against the notion of retreating participation.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 59
Among on-chain metrics, Bitcoin’s hashrate stands out as continuing to relay the robustness of demand for the network’s functionality and by default, adoption.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 58
Outsize attention on the ambivalent Ripple ruling largely eclipsed important crypto ETF developments.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 57
Bitcoin ETF applicants citing the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate – New York Variant (BRRNY) for NAV calculation, have a built in additional dimension of surveillance sharing.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 56
Whilst it's clear that the first U.S.-listed spot Bitcoin ETF will include a Surveillance Sharing Agreement, that fund is also likely to be one that includes a regulated CF Benchmarks index as its NAV-calculation price
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 55
BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin ETF Trust filing (citing our regulated CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate - New York Variant for NAV-calculation) offers additional colour to the resurgent spate of similar applications in its wake.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 54
Now, we’ve seen perhaps the ultimate institutional adoption moment that’s counter to the ‘crypto winter’ narrative.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter - Issue 53
In fact, from CF Benchmarks’ perspective as an FCA regulated Benchmark Administrator, the most salient points to make in response are actually separate from and pre-exist this week's developments considerably.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 51
As well as continuing to creep higher in recent days, Bitcoin is also definitively holding above $20K for the first time since mid-September, with CME CF Bitcoin Realtime Index (BRTI) depicting constructive and unusually benign price action.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 50
Recent selloffs have profoundly increased the volatility in the fiat-forex markets, with volatility now ranging from approximately 75% to over 100% that of bitcoin's.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 49
Crypto rides surreal risk asset rally • New: CF Rolling CME Bitcoin Futures Index • CME expands CFB-powered BTICs.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 48
CFB client launches and pipelines counterpoint any ‘crypto winter’: Hashdex’s new META11 references Digital Culture Composite Index, Monochrome’s BRR-supported Bitcoin ETF is in its final stretch, and more CFB indices arrive on CME
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 47
★ Hashdex plants flag on Web 3.0 with CF Benchmarks-driven ETF ★ LMAX Digital becomes CF Benchmarks Constituent Exchange ★ CF Digital Culture Index makes ‘fun’ protocols investible
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 46
Learn how to use the most important tool yet for understanding and investing in the digital asset universe - fast
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 45
CF Benchmarks has launched CF Digital Asset Classification Structure. It’s a taxonomy similar to those designed for traditional assets, but carefully adapted for the digital asset universe.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 44
Monochrome Asset Management is a key contender to list Australia’s first crypto ETP, more so, after partnering with CF Benchmarks
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 43
The latest BTC capital markets innovation is also the first time our regulated CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) has been deployed in a structured product transaction
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 42
Following the blowout launch of ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF, the pace of follow-on news has predictably been rapid. We summarise some of the most salient developments from our perspective inside.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 41
Evolve ETFs headlines institutional reorientation to the asset class again, this time with Evolve Cryptocurrencies ETF.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 40
Summer’s done, and the waiting game for that elusive U.S. Bitcoin ETF continues. We thought it high time to update our round-up of CFB-powered filings.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 39
With multi-asset ETFs looking increasingly like the next logical frontier of accessibility, CF Benchmarks-administered Nasdaq Crypto Index (NCI) was also named in a new filing.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 38
These are Gensler’s least equivocal remarks yet on this topic, indicating a potential line of least resistance.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 37
NYDIG will handle the BTC, etc., avoiding the regulatory uncertainty U.S. banks face in an increasingly crypto world.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 36
Backed by the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, QBTC11 joins the ranks of the most trustworthy, fully regulated crypto assets in the world, bringing the convenience of the simplified ETF wrapper to Brazilian investors.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 35
Texas-based Victory Capital, an $157bn AuM investment manager, is set to launch assets referencing the CF Benchmarks-devised and calculated Nasdaq Crypto Index.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 34
By way of consolation, BTC continued to levitate above May’s $29k-handle lows.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 33
The latest CF Benchmarks-powered planned Bitcoin ETF to be tapped for SEC review is Anthony Scaramucci’s First Trust SkyBridge Bitcoin ETF.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 32
Beyond market shock and awe, institutional convergence has barely appeared to miss a step
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 31
The SEC has reaffirmed its preference for regulated Bitcoin prices (aka BRR) and regulated Bitcoin futures (aka CME Bitcoin Futures).
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 30
Anthony Scaramucci’s First Trust Skybridge Bitcoin ETF Trust officially named CF Bitcoin US Settlement Price as proposed NAV calculation index
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 29
For the last several months there’s really been only one game in the institutional crypto town, and it’s all about those steps to a potential first U.S. Bitcoin ETF
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 28
Three simultaneously launched Ether ETFs underlined their sponsors’ willingness to go head-to-head.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 27
Evolve ETFs edged ahead of rivals with Friday’s announcement of what’s set to be the world’s first Ether ETF
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 26
Crypto attention is already shifting to the next opportunity – a potential direct listing of Coinbase’s best-established rival, Kraken, in 2022
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 25
The SEC has been presented with options to demonstrate where it stands on a Bitcoin ETF.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 24
Like Evolve’s Bitcoin ETF, trading in Canada, the Brazilian fund will track the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR).
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 23
WisdomTree filed an application to offer WisdomTree Bitcoin Trust using the CF Bitcoin Settlement Price (US Close) as its daily valuation index.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 22
There’s really no other way to interpret Evolve ETFs’s filing of a preliminary prospectus for the world’s first Ether ETF, powered by the CME CF Ether Reference Rate, than as a vote of confidence.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 21
The market may well have witnessed its biggest single-session drop ever—since the last one a few weeks ago—though institutional crypto convergence continued apace.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 20
A more pressing question than ‘where next for BTC’s price?’ was whether the OSC’s resoluteness would encourage the SEC off the fence
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 19
Tesla, driving a coach and horses through conventional notions of treasury management, was the main feature.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 18
Our CME CF Ether-Dollar Real Time Index was recorded at $1,761.86, with a 16:08:25 time stamp. That’s certainly the highest the authorised Benchmark has traded since its inception in May 2018.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 17
Bitcoin’s price behaviour is now the closest to what may be described as ‘a range’ for the first time in months.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 16
As if to drive home the lesson that significant crypto adoption news and promising political developments won’t always necessarily coincide with celebratory price action, the two largest cryptocurrencies veered in separate directions this week.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 15
With a CFTC-regulated futures market operated by the CME Group now accounting for the highest BTC-USD open interest, among other elements of a more mature crypto market place than existed in 2017, brave forecasts of what might happen next based on BTC’s trajectory then, are void
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 14
Several months into this barrage of records, their frequency has not abated to an extent for a serious correction—say $10,000-plus—to appear highly-probable in the near term.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 13
Our latest proprietary research shows that the BRR achieves a quality that’s like a Holy Grail for institutional traders and providers of regulated products
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 12
Another week that Bitcoin failed to set an incremental new all-time high since notching a string of these in late November
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 11
Cryptocurrency markets have however amply demonstrated the same proneness to common behavioural patterns as any other financial markets, where consolidation manifests as profit taking, seasonality, and more
CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 10
To those for whom the spectacular price moves of the week were completely unforeseen - including Bitcoin’s drop by as much as 16% in about 24 hours - welcome to the wonderful world of crypto.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 9
The most prevalent cryptocurrency by full market cap has yet to reach ardent peaks near $20,000 from December 2017, but aspects of the same heady atmosphere as then, around crypto, Wall St. and Main St, are making a return.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 8
Broader market cheer that lifted the S&P 500 to its best levels in 10 weeks in recent days underscores the extent to which major crypto is now a part of the same sphere.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Newsletter Issue 7
News that the long-planned policy switch for the Ethereum blockchain finally has a hard launch date was arguably more important.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 6
When the history of cryptocurrencies’ slow but steady progress to the mainstream is written, it may contain a section covering former sceptics who underwent a damascene conversion.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap Newsletter - Issue 5
The $239bn group with 346 million active users will instantly become the biggest enabler of consumer crypto adoption by virtue of being the largest retail platform with digital assets on its network.
Ken Odeluga
CF Benchmarks Recap - Issue 4
- New LINK-USD Benchmarks - Fidelity even more bullish Bitcoin - Stoneridge reveals 10,000 BTC custody empire
CF Benchmarks
Recap: Our weekly newsletter
• FCA makes its move • Not so Square Inc., buys BTC • Why crypto shrugs off BitMEX
CF Benchmarks
This week's Recap
News that the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and federal prosecutors levelled multiple charges against the high-profile crypto and crypto-derivatives platform BitMEX, had a slight chilling effect on market prices.
CF Benchmarks
Our Weekly Crypto Recap
• Kraken becomes First Crypto Bank • DeFi still defying gravity, lifting ETH • How much Ether exists? Our take
CF Benchmarks
An early look at the CF Benchmarks weekly newsletter
Look out for our newsletter each week for updates on our indices and other products, plus news and thoughtful views about the markets we list.
CF Benchmarks
ETH returns 61% in April, the best monthly return since May 2019 (64%), recovering most of its March losses
* ETH remains 24.4% off its 2020 high yet still shows an impressive 60.6% YTD return * Aggregate volumes in April (713,389) trail March (934,680) but were still significantly ahead of January (247,500) and February (534,707) * April 23rd saw volumes of 120,812 ETH traded, only slightly behind "Black Thursday" - March 13th (123,248)
CF Benchmarks