Lukka, an established digital asset software and data provider, has teamed up with global business information provider IHS Markit in order to redistribute Lukka’s “institutional-grade” blockchain and crypto-asset data products. They include Lukka Prime and Lukka Reference Data, as part of the extensive IHS Markit Pricing, Valuations and Reference Data offerings. This will allow funds to easily add virtual currencies and other digital assets to their investment portfolios in compliance with regulatory guidelines.
Lukka’s software and data solutions aim to “transform” complex blockchain or distributed ledger tech (DLT) data into “easy-to-use” information to support routine business operations.
As mentioned in a release shared with CI:
“Built with true institutional-quality standards, Lukka was the first and currently only middle and back office digital asset provider to receive AICPA SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 certifications.”
Robert Materazzi, CEO of Lukka, noted that as traditional funds and companies begin to add digital assets to their investment portfolios and balance sheets, they’ll be trying to find “trusted” service providers, like IHS Markit to provide “equivalent” services.
Materazzi revealed that his firm is seeing the adoption of digital assets really pick up as indicated by announcements from The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), which has allowed nationally chartered banks to custody digital currencies.
Materazzi remarked:
“Crypto is here. Any business only talking about it in innovation labs is going to miss enormous opportunities. However, with 11 years of little oversight and standard setters involved, aspects like data quality are vital to be included as part of vendor selection.This is the focus of our partnership with IHS Markit: offer institutional quality data services to the world as it adopts crypto.”
Tasha Gonska, Head of Americas Business Development for IHS Markit Pricing, Valuations and Reference Data, stated that her firm’s partnership with Lukka will aim to offer “seamless” access to an effective solution for Fair Market Value pricing on digital currencies and other virtual assets.
Gonska added that as the demand for digital assets continues to grow, this collaboration with Lukka may further expand the strength of their extensive valuations expertise, “while bringing financial markets additional transparency on complex and dynamic assets.”
Lukka Prime is a proprietary pricing methodology and a Fair Market Value (FMV)-based pricing service for crypto-assets. Prime may be used to “directly address the SEC’s recent guidance regarding fund valuation, specifically, the use of executed prices instead of volume weighted average prices (VWAPs),” the release noted.
Additionally, Lukka Prime may serve as an “independent pricing source that the SEC guidance requires to serve as a check on pricing data that may be offered or used by fund managers.”
Lukka Reference Data is a collection of more than 6,000 digital assets, more than 27,000 crypto-asset derivative ticker symbols, and thousands of trading pairs symbols and other reference data across the digital asset ecosystem.
As noted in the announcement:
“The distributed nature of digital assets often creates data consistency issues which can become a barrier to entry for companies. Lukka offers a standardized identification, the Lukka ID (LID), equivalent to ISINs or CUSIPs in the traditional ecosystem and can be used to populate internal security masters.”
IHS Markit Pricing, Valuations and Reference Data allows companies to “optimize” trades and reduce overall risk via “independently evaluated” pricing in fixed income, credit and derivatives markets, including bonds, leveraged loans, CLOs and “hard-to-value” illiquid securities. IHS’ technology is “complemented by transparent methodologies, flexible delivery services and a global team of professionals with cross-asset expertise.”