Can crypto trust firms compete with banks in US derivatives settlements?

Crypto firms are pushing further into a corner of market plumbing that has long belonged to banks: daily settlements in US derivatives, where billions of dollars move through clearing systems every business day. The latest CFTC move gives them a clearer opening, but not a permanent one, which is the part that matters if you are deciding whether a trust-company model is a real settlement option or just a temporary regulatory detour.

1. On Nov. 5, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued no-action relief that allows derivatives clearinghouses to use trust companies for daily settlements with clearing members, provided they meet the same evaluation and monitoring requirements applied to traditional settlement banks. Until now, that function had been restricted to banks under the agency’s regulations.
2. The relief came after an Oct. 29 request from derivatives clearinghouse Nodal Clear. It also plugs a gap 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.
3. The business opportunity is not small. 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. These are transfers between clearing firms to settle gains and losses, not settlement-bank fees, but they show the scale of the rails crypto custodians are now being allowed to touch.
4. Nodal Clear had already partnered with Coinbase in 2025 to integrate USDC into US futures trading, and Coinbase Custody Trust was expected to provide daily settlement services under that setup, according to Cointelegraph. That makes the CFTC relief more than a theoretical footnote: it aligns the regulatory text with an arrangement the market was already building toward.
5. The catch is durability. The relief is revocable, and the change lands in a shifting US political environment, so the opening may not survive intact. At the same time, other crypto firms are moving into adjacent institutional services: BitGo launched its Global Markets division on Nov. 4, and Coinbase’s national trust bank charter took effect on Nov. 6. Several major crypto firms have also secured US national trust bank approvals over the past months, including Circle, Ripple, Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge.

For high-risk payment and settlement players, the practical question is whether trust companies can now become acceptable counterparts in regulated derivatives flows, or whether banks will keep the advantage once supervisors or politics change the framing again. The CFTC’s decision says the door is open; it does not say how long it will stay that way.