LCH Gets Approval to Clear Bitcoin Index Products
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: April 8, 2024
LCH SA has received the required regulatory approval European regulators to allow it to provide clearing services for cash-settled bitcoin index futures and options products.
The approval, from the French national competent authorities (ACPR, Banque de France and AMF) and European supervisory authorities (EMIR College, ESMA), will see LCH SA will provide clearing services through a new dedicated service, LCH DigitalAssetClear, for contracts traded on the UK FCA-regulated digital asset derivatives trading venue, GFO-X.
The clearinghouse says the offering has been developed by itself and GFO-X in close consultation with market participants to ensure their digital asset derivatives are traded and cleared through a service that is secure, highly regulated and focused on digital asset derivatives. “LCH DigitalAssetClear is underpinned by a segregated default fund, tailored risk management model and dedicated set of clearing rules,” the firm says. “LCH SA continues to engage with General Clearing Members and plans to launch the clearing service later in 2024.”
The cleared contracts will be based on the GFO-X/Coin Metrics Single Asset Real-Time Bitcoin Index (GFOXBR), which is an EU Benchmark Regulation and compliant reference rate of the US dollar price of bitcoin. Firms will be able to trade futures and options on the bitcoin reference index directly.
