Bloomberg and Kaiko, a cryptocurrency data provider, have partnered to ensure that Financial Instrument Global Identifiers (FIGIs) now cover almost 8,000 crypto assets, making the FIGI the most widely used open identifier in the space.
The Financial Instrument Global Identifier is an open standard of the Object Management Group (OMG) and a recognized US national standard by the American Standards Committee, X9, part of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). Bloomberg and Kaiko issued the first series of FIGIs to cover crypto assets in 2021, as the rapidly growing cryptocurrency industry requires greater consistency, transparency and efficiency.
Speaking to BEST EXECUTION, Philippe Redaelli, Kaiko managing director of strategic initiatives, who is leading the FIGI initiative at Kaiko, said: “With FIGIs, crypto assets can now be handled with the same level of consistency, transparency and efficiency as any other asset class.”
“This is crucial as institutional adoption increases, and helps financial firms streamline their processes with a familiar identifier already used widely in the securities industry. Kaiko is pleased to work with Bloomberg to provide FIGIs for nearly 8,000 crypto assets.
“Firms who do not use standard product identifiers must find a way to manually identify and track crypto assets, which is cumbersome and impractical, which is why this initiative comes at a good moment for the industry, which is seeing a resurgence in institutional interest,” Redaelli added.
FIGIs for crypto assets enable interoperability between industry participants across the trading life cycle, such as digital exchanges, data aggregators, custodians, service providers and regulators. Incorporating FIGIs at the infrastructure level enables a coherent view of market data across multiple providers and applications.
FIGIs are assigned at three levels of granularity: asset, currency pair and trading platform. This hierarchy provides all market players with greater transparency and a broader view across the sector, and ultimately brings the total number of FIGI codes currently issued to 28,000.
The FIGI standard complements, and is compatible with, other relevant identifiers in the space. Each instrument assigned with a FIGI can also be tied at an asset level to the ISO’s Digital Token Identifier (DTI), or to an International Securities Identification Number (ISIN) with appropriate licensing.
Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran said: “The continuous evolution of the cryptocurrency industry demands cohesive standards for taxonomic, regulatory and classification frameworks. Our collaboration with Bloomberg in expanding FIGIs for crypto assets signifies a stride towards enhancing industry interoperability and fostering efficiency.”
“This development aligns with our commitment to addressing the sector’s challenges and propelling it towards greater maturity and accessibility,” Soubiran added.
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