Can crypto trust firms compete with banks in US derivatives settlements?
Crypto custodians are moving into a market handling billions in daily settlements, but regulatory relief and a shift in congressional control leave questions over their long-term role.
Crypto companies are moving deeper into financial services traditionally dominated by banks, seeking a role in US derivatives settlements, where billions of dollars change hands daily.
The push comes as regulators expand the services trust companies can provide, even as traditional banking groups challenge parts of the regulatory framework governing crypto firms’ expansion into banklike activities.
A Nov. 5 decision by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) illustrates the shift, allowing derivatives clearinghouses to use trust companies for daily settlements with clearing members, a function previously restricted to banks under the agency’s regulations.
The relief could create new business opportunities for regulated crypto custodians, but its revocable nature and changes in the US political landscape raise questions about the durability of the regulatory opening.
The scale of the derivatives settlement business offers some perspective on the opportunity.
CME Group, one of the world’s largest derivatives market operators, transferred an average of $8.7 billion per business day through its clearing systems during the first half of 2026, up from $6.7 billion a day in 2025, according to regulatory filings.
Those figures represent funds transferred between clearing firms to settle gains and losses, rather than fees earned by settlement banks. They nevertheless illustrate the scale of financial flows supported by the infrastructure that trust companies could increasingly help provide.
The CFTC’s Division of Clearing and Risk issued no-action relief on Nov. 5 following an Oct. 29 request from derivatives clearinghouse Nodal Clear, allowing clearinghouses to use trust companies for daily settlements if they meet the same evaluation and monitoring requirements applied to traditional settlement banks.
The decision addresses an inconsistency between federal commodities law, which permits customer funds to be held at banks or trust companies, and CFTC Regulation 39.14, which defines settlement banks only as banks.
Nodal Clear partnered with Coinbase in 2025 to integrate USDC into US futures trading. Coinbase Custody Trust was already expected to provide daily settlement services under the arrangement, Cointelegraph has learned.