CF Benchmarks
CF Benchmarks is a benchmark administrator in London that calculates reference rates and real-time indices for bitcoin, ether and other digital assets. The UK Financial Conduct Authority regulates the firm, and its registered office is at One London Wall in the City of London. CF Benchmarks belongs to the Crypto Facilities group within Payward, Inc., the company that operates the Kraken exchange.
Exchange-traded funds and futures contracts settle against its rates every day. CF Benchmarks states that its indices have been used in regulated financial products since 2017 and that more than 500 billion dollars of futures regulated by the CFTC and the FCA have settled against them.
Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR)
The CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, short BRR, is published once a day at 4 p.m. London time and is calculated from bitcoin trades on several constituent exchanges. CME Group settles its bitcoin futures against the BRR, and the funds of BlackRock, Evolve and QR Asset use it as their benchmark. A New York variant, the BRRNY, prices the spot bitcoin ETFs of BlackRock, Bitwise, 3iQ, Franklin Templeton, WisdomTree, CoinShares and 21Shares.
Bitcoin Real Time Index (BRTI)
Beside the daily rate, CF Benchmarks publishes the CME CF Bitcoin Real Time Index, short BRTI, once every second from the order books of its constituent exchanges. A trading desk follows the BRTI between two daily fixings, and a fund issuer can compare the intraday price of its ETF with it. Real-time indices of the same kind exist for ether and other assets.
Ether and other reference rates
For ether, CF Benchmarks calculates the CME CF Ether-Dollar Reference Rate, ETHUSD_RR, which Evolve and QR Asset use. Its New York variant ETHUSD_NY prices the ether funds of BlackRock, Bitwise, 3iQ, Franklin Templeton and 21Shares, so the same rate family stands behind several ether ETFs in the United States. In 2025 CME Group chose a CF Benchmarks rate, the CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, for the settlement of its new Solana futures.
Part of Kraken
CF Benchmarks started inside Crypto Facilities, a London derivatives venue that Kraken bought in 2019. The logo of CF Benchmarks now carries the line "a Kraken company", and the administrator stays a separately regulated firm whose methodologies an oversight committee reviews.
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What is the CF Benchmarks BRR?
The BRR is the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate, a daily bitcoin price fixed at 4 p.m. London time from trades on several exchanges. CME bitcoin futures and several spot bitcoin ETFs settle or value their holdings against it.
Who owns the administrator?
The administrator belongs to the Crypto Facilities group within Payward, Inc., the company behind the Kraken exchange. The UK Financial Conduct Authority supervises it as a benchmark administrator.
What is the difference between the BRR and the BRTI?
The BRR is one fixed price per day for settlement and fund valuation. The BRTI is a real-time index published every second, which traders use to follow the bitcoin price during the day.
CF Benchmarks and Finance Loop
Bitcoin reference rates sit behind every spot bitcoin ETF and every regulated bitcoin future, which makes them part of the Finance Loop track Investment & Digital Assets. CF Benchmarks is one of the crypto price feed providers whose rates fund managers in Frankfurt meet when they compare bitcoin ETFs and ETPs.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.