Crypto.com has secured approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer margined derivatives, opening the door for the Singapore-based exchange to compete directly with established futures venues inside the world’s most tightly regulated derivatives market.
The licence amends the order for Crypto.com’s U.S. unit, Crypto.com | Derivatives North America, allowing it to clear margined contracts rather than only fully collateralised products. An affiliated brokerage, Foris DAX FCM LLC, has also been approved by the National Futures Association to act as a futures commission merchant, giving the group the ability to intermediate client trades.
The move gives Crypto.com control over the full U.S. futures stack: exchange, clearing house and broker. That structure mirrors the model used by traditional Chicago exchanges, but is rare among crypto-native firms, many of which have until now relied on offshore entities or have been shut out of the U.S. market altogether.
The approval rests on a corporate lineage that predates Crypto.com. Derivatives North America is the rebranded North American Derivatives Exchange, or Nadex, a retail‑focused exchange created from HedgeStreet, one of the first electronic venues to win CFTC designation in 2004. IG Group acquired the business in 2007, rebranded it as Nadex two years later, and sold it to Crypto.com in 2021 for $216 million, alongside a minority stake in the Small Exchange. That deal gave Crypto.com a U.S. exchange and clearing licence at a time when rivals were facing increasing enforcement risk.
The timing now is notable. U.S. regulators have spent the past three years cracking down on offshore derivatives venues, culminating in Binance’s multibillion‑dollar settlement with the Justice Department and the CFTC in 2023, and the CFTC’s $12 billion judgment against FTX and Alameda in 2024. Against that backdrop, major firms have turned to on‑shore, regulated models. Coinbase, for example, announced plans in June to launch CFTC‑supervised perpetual futures in the U.S.
Crypto.com has had its own regulatory battles. It has faced questions from the Securities and Exchange Commission, which issued the firm a Wells notice in 2024, though the matter remains unresolved. On the CFTC side, the latest licence change represents a clear opening: the firm can now list contracts that look more like traditional futures, with leverage, margin calls and central clearing.
“The ability to clear margined products will allow us to serve a broader client base with risk management tools that are standard in other asset classes,” the company said in its announcement.
The CFTC, for its part, is moving forward with a digital assets policy agenda even amid leadership churn. Acting chair Caroline Pham has floated pilot projects for tokenised collateral, including stablecoins, in futures markets—an initiative that could directly affect how margin is posted at venues like Crypto.com’s exchange.
The competitive race is only beginning. Margined crypto derivatives remain one of the most active product categories globally, with billions in daily volume still concentrated offshore. With a U.S. licence in hand, Crypto.com joins a small group of players betting that investors will trade those contracts under the CFTC’s rulebook, even if leverage is lower and compliance costs higher.
For Crypto.com, which has spent heavily on brand deals and a global expansion campaign, the question now is whether its Chicago‑based derivatives arm can carve out real market share against both incumbents and well‑capitalised newcomers.