Quatrefoil Data Services, a company dedicated to offering institutional-level benchmarks in digital assets, has officially launched operations, beginning with a reference rate for Ethereum staking, the firm announced on Monday.
Its leading product, the Composite Ether Staking Rate (CESR), evaluates yields from Ethereum validators and is intended to serve as crypto’s version of a “risk-free rate.”
CESR was developed by the investment firm CoinFund and is currently distributed by CoinDesk Indices. Various asset managers and protocols, including Coinbase and FalconX, utilize it to design products and manage risk.
Benchmarks are essential in traditional markets, serving as foundational elements for futures and insurance. In the absence of reliable standards, the cryptocurrency sector has faced challenges in creating regulated financial products.
Quatrefoil aims to address this issue. The firm has also obtained a U.S. patent for its benchmarking methodology and is in the process of developing new indices for Solana, Avalanche, liquid staking tokens, and stablecoin lending.
To enhance its policy expertise, Quatrefoil has enlisted former CFTC Chair J. Christopher Giancarlo as an advisor. Giancarlo, recognized for his efforts to modernize U.S. derivatives regulations, stated that the firm is well-equipped to provide “high impact” benchmarks to fuel the next generation of crypto-related financial products.
CEO Finbarr Hutcheson, a former Goldman Sachs executive and ex-CEO of ICE Clear Europe, remarked that these benchmarks would promote transparency and scalability in digital assets. Christopher Perkins of CoinFund, who was involved in the design of CESR, highlighted that such standards could potentially support trillions of dollars in products as institutional adoption grows.
