US Patent Issued to Chicago Mercantile Exchange on June 24 for "Derivative contracts that settle based on transaction data" (Illinois Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 25 -- United States Patent no. 12,340,417, issued on June 24, was assigned to Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. (Chicago).

"Derivative contracts that settle based on transaction data" was invented by Ryan Pierce (Chicago), Mansoor Ahmed (Naperville, Ill.) and John Plante (Chicago).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The disclosed systems and methods make derivatives contracts based on an underlying virtual currency available for trading. Certain derivatives contracts have a settlement value based on the transaction fees associated with recording and/or performing transactions for the selected virtual currency. The contracts can be used, for example, by virtual currency miners a...