ICE launches CoinDesk crypto futures, on-chain interest rate contracts will bring DeFi into the core of traditional finance
February 11 News, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has officially launched a series of cryptocurrency futures products linked to the CoinDesk benchmark indices, marking a new phase in the regulated market’s deployment of digital asset derivatives. These contracts are settled in US dollars cash, providing institutional investors with a compliant channel to participate in the volatility of mainstream crypto markets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum without directly holding or custodying the assets.
ICE stated that this batch of futures was first announced externally on January 9 and has begun trading this week. It includes a wide range of market contracts linked to the CoinDesk 20 and CoinDesk 5 indices, as well as single-asset futures tracking the price performance of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, XRP, and BNB. Since these products do not involve physical delivery, they are more aligned with traditional institutions’ risk management and asset allocation needs.
More notably, ICE plans to launch USDC futures based on the CoinDesk overnight rate, with a one-month term, currently awaiting regulatory approval. This rate is derived from decentralized finance lending markets, reflecting on-chain real funding costs, and is logically similar to traditional overnight benchmark rates such as SOFR. This means that in the future, traders will not only be able to bet on price movements but also price the liquidity, borrowing costs, and capital tightness of the crypto market.
Industry experts believe that this move is reshaping the financial attributes of digital assets, gradually transforming them from mere speculative targets into market tools with comprehensive financing and credit pricing functions. ICE also pointed out that the CoinDesk indices are currently linked to hundreds of billions of dollars in assets, with the CoinDesk 20 weighted by market capitalization, covering most of the digital asset market performance.
As regulated derivatives and DeFi interest rate mechanisms merge, the boundary between traditional capital and on-chain finance is being redefined, and the pricing system of the crypto market is expected to move toward a more mature stage.
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