OKCoin Added to CME Bitcoin Index

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) announced the development of a bitcoin price index in May this year, and this time it has joined OKCoin, a digital currency exchange headquartered in China.

CME Group previously partnered with London-based Crypto Facilities to launch the CME CF Bitcoin Reference Rate (BRR) and CME CF Bitcoin Real-Time Index (BRTI), which are scheduled to be tested in early October and in public beta in November.

The index now includes major digital currency exchanges including Bitfinex, Bitstamp, Coin, Genesis Global Trading, itBit and Kraken.

In the statement, OKCoin told CoinDesk that the move reflects OKCoin’s increased focus on compliance following the hiring of former BitPay employee Tim Byun as chief risk officer.

“As the largest Bitcoin exchange in Asia, OKCoin believes this move will bring significant progress in the development of digital assets.”

OKCoin CEO Mingxing Xu said.

The digital currency market has been boosted by growing interest from financial institutions, with two bitcoin exchange-traded funds currently awaiting approval.

Additional information: CME is an investor in Digital Currency Group, the parent company of CoinDesk.