Coinbase Completes Regulated Derivatives Stack with CFTC Approval

Coinbase has completed its regulated derivatives infrastructure after receiving approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) to register Coinbase Clearing LLC as a Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO). This move allows Coinbase to list, broker, and clear fully collateralized products in-house.

The DCO registration is the final piece of Coinbase's regulated derivatives infrastructure, alongside its existing Futures Commission Merchant (FCM) and Designated Contract Market (DCM) registrations. According to Coinbase, this setup enables the company to create and settle fully collateralized contracts directly, leading to faster product development and more efficient operations.

Coinbase Clearing is limited to clearing only fully-collateralized futures, options on futures, and swaps, and cannot clear leveraged products through its own clearinghouse. Those products would still go through outside clearing partners.