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CF Benchmarks brings Wall Street pricing infrastructure onchain, data used by BlackRock
CF Benchmarks is making its pricing indices, which are utilized by BlackRock and CME Group, available to blockchain-based financial applications.
This new service, called CFB Oracle, allows decentralized applications access to benchmarks covering cryptocurrencies, stocks, bonds, commodities, and currencies.
The objective is to provide developers building investment products on blockchains with the same pricing infrastructure used by major financial institutions.
For instance, a fund on a blockchain holding tokenized stocks would require reliable pricing to ascertain its portfolio's value. Similarly, a lending platform accepting tokenized bonds as collateral needs this data to manage borrowing limits and liquidation timing.
CF Benchmarks' indices already support products representing over $120 billion in assets within traditional financial markets.
With CFB Oracle, developers can construct items like onchain index funds, tokenized portfolios, and derivatives without developing proprietary pricing systems.
The service is currently operational on Ethereum, HyperEVM, and Robinhood Chain, with extensions planned for other compatible networks.
CF Benchmarks assures that the data is digitally signed, enabling applications to verify the source and integrity of the prices. Furthermore, the company publishes each index at a uniform frequency for all customers.
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, intends to utilize CFB Oracle to supply pricing data for a forthcoming U.S. perpetual futures offering powered by Hyperliquid (HYPE), pending regulatory approval.
This introduction places CF Benchmarks in direct competition with existing oracle providers, such as Chainlink and Pyth, which already furnish market data to decentralized trading and lending platforms.
This development reflects a broader trend as more financial entities seek to offer conventional investment instruments through decentralized finance (DeFi) mechanisms.
Why it matters
This development signals a significant move toward integrating traditional financial infrastructure into decentralized finance. As regulators watch the intersection of traditional finance and crypto, reliable, institutional-grade pricing data is crucial for the legitimacy of onchain investment products. The planned use by Payward highlights the immediate application of this bridging technology.
