Ahead Of Planned IPO, Blockchain.com Applies For CFTC Licenses To Offer Event Contracts And Crypto Derivatives In The US

by
Alisa Davidson

Printed: October 09, 2026 at 9:27 am Up to date: October 09, 2026 at 9:27 am

by Anastasiia O

Edited and fact-checked:
October 09, 2026 at 9:27 am

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Blockchain.com has taken a big step towards increasing its US product providing by submitting two functions with the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee (CFTC). The digital asset platform is in search of a Designated Contract Market (DCM) license, which might designate it as a futures alternate, and registration as a Futures Fee Service provider (FCM), which might permit it to behave as a dealer for derivatives contracts. If accepted, these licenses would allow the corporate to supply occasion buying and selling contracts and cryptocurrency derivatives to each retail and institutional shoppers throughout the USA, all inside a totally regulated framework.

The transfer displays a broader strategic imaginative and prescient of consolidating digital asset providers right into a single platform. In response to CEO and co-founder Peter Smith, customers ought to be capable of handle their digital belongings, commerce derivatives, and take positions on real-world occasions with out switching between a number of functions — a objective the DCM and FCM functions are designed to advance domestically.

Importantly, this isn’t a wholly new course for the corporate. Earlier this 12 months, Blockchain.com examined prediction market merchandise with a few of its worldwide shoppers via a partnership with Polymarket, whereas providing perpetual contracts powered by Hyperliquid. The CFTC filings mark the extension of that product technique into the regulated US market, a step the corporate argues will convey event-based buying and selling beneath applicable federal oversight.

Becoming a member of a Crowded and Quickly Evolving Market

Blockchain.com’s functions place it on the intersection of two converging traits: crypto exchanges getting into the prediction market area, and prediction market operators adopting crypto-style merchandise. Crypto.com and Gemini function their very own occasion contract marketplaces, whereas Coinbase primarily provides related merchandise via its partnership with Kalshi. In the other way, Kalshi and Polymarket have launched perpetual futures — one of the vital in style buying and selling merchandise in crypto — for US and worldwide prospects respectively.

Competitors for regulatory approval is intensifying as effectively. Blockchain.com is now certainly one of twelve firms which have filed for DCM licenses this 12 months alone, with the CFTC having accepted six new designated contract markets in 2026. The surge in functions underscores each the rising mainstream attraction of occasion contracts and the trade’s push towards compliant, US-based buying and selling infrastructure.

The licensing effort additionally coincides with the corporate’s preparations to enter public markets. Blockchain.com confidentially filed for an preliminary public providing with the Securities and Alternate Fee in Could, and experiences have indicated it’s focusing on a public itemizing this 12 months at a valuation between $4 billion and $6 billion. The result of its CFTC functions might show consequential for that trajectory, as a totally licensed US derivatives and prediction market providing would strengthen its place because it approaches potential buyers.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, makes a speciality of crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising traits and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and interact readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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