GFO-X announced the successful launch of its UK FCA regulated trading venue for centrally cleared digital asset derivatives. The venue is designed to meet the increasing institutional demand for secure, transparent, and compliant digital asset futures and options. GFO-X brings together best-in-class market infrastructure, deep liquidity, and central clearing to solve for credit and significantly reduce counterparty risk.

As part of its successful debut, the first institutional trade between two leading financial institutions, Virtu Financial and IMC, was executed on GFO-X and centrally cleared through LCH DigitalAssetClear, marking a milestone in the evolution of institutional-grade digital asset markets. The new venue brings additional depth, breadth, and diversification to the limited choices in centrally cleared digital asset index derivatives.

GFO-X CEO, Arnab Sen, said, “The launch of GFO-X is a further foundational step toward increased institutional digital asset derivatives trading, providing the infrastructure, central clearing, robust risk mitigation, and liquidity. With our first trade executed between two leading financial institutions providing deep liquidity, we are expanding the market for centrally cleared digital asset derivatives.”

Addressing the Institutional Surge in Digital Asset Derivatives Demand

The global market for digital asset derivatives has seen explosive growth, with options and futures trading volumes growing exponentially. Institutional investors, including hedge funds, proprietary trading firms, and asset managers, increasingly turn to structured products underpinned by derivatives to hedge risk, enhance yield strategies, and gain exposure to crypto markets with greater regulatory clarity.

GFO-X has been purpose-built to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets by offering:

• Regulated Trading & Transparency – Operating under UK FCA authorisation, ensuring compliance with global financial standards.
• Institutional-Grade Liquidity – Deep order books supported by industry leading market makers and participants, including IMC, Laser Digital and Virtu Financial.
• Leading Clearing Bank integrations at launch – including ABN AMRO Clearing, Nomura and Standard Chartered.
• Central Clearing for Counterparty Risk Mitigation by LCH DigitalAssetClear ensures secure margining, collateral management, and default protections.
• Advanced Market Infrastructure – A high-speed matching engine designed for low-latency execution and high-frequency trading.

With institutional adoption accelerating, GFO-X will continue expanding its product suite, initially offering Bitcoin index futures and options.

Market participants can now onboard and begin trading, with several additional leading financial institutions already lined up for integration. As institutions increasingly seek regulated, scalable solutions for digital asset derivatives trading, GFO-X is positioned to become a premier venue in the evolving landscape of institutional crypto derivative markets.

Marcus Robinson, Head of DigitalAssetClear and CDSClear, LCH, said, “We are delighted to partner with GFO-X to launch this highly anticipated service from LCH SA. The regulated clearing infrastructure within LSEG’s post trade ecosystem has allowed us to build something meaningful for our participants and address the availability of options for a rapidly growing asset class. It is essential that we find ways to offer regulated, segregated and trusted routes to provide customers with a diverse breadth of services and we are excited to continue working with GFO-X to offer a regulated marketplace for this asset class.”

Barry Polak, Lead Product Commerce, ABN AMRO Clearing, said, “We are excited to partner with GFO-X, the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue dedicated to digital asset derivatives. This strategic collaboration underscores our shared commitment to advancing the institutional digital asset futures and options market. By leveraging LCH DigitalAssetClear’s clearing services, we enhance transaction security and minimise counterparty risk, offering our clients unparalleled confidence in trading Bitcoin futures and options. A logical step to continue to lead the way to safe and transparent markets.”

Osi Lilian, IMC Strategic Investments Co-Lead, said, “IMC was proud to be one of the earliest investors in GFO-X in 2021. We aligned with their vision of establishing the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives, built on secure, high-performance technology and robust risk management. As a market maker, our strategic connection with GFO-X underscores our commitment to the institutional digital asset futures and options market – a rapidly evolving space we believe holds significant potential for continued growth and opportunity.”

Olivier Dang, Head of Ventures at Laser Digital, said, “We are thrilled to partner with GFO-X as they launch the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue dedicated to digital asset derivatives. This collaboration aligns perfectly with our vision to drive innovation and growth in the digital asset market.”

Andy Ross, Global Head, Prime & Financing, Financing & Securities Service, Standard Chartered, said, “We’re delighted to support the launch of GFO-X derivatives and to join LCH SA as a general clearing member to enable our clients to trade and clear. We continue to invest in servicing our clients broadly across the crypto space in coin, token and derivative form.”

“Virtu makes markets globally and is excited to support new and innovative platforms for digital assets in this role. We see broadening adoption and increasing demand as the crypto markets continue to mature and embrace the risk management benefits and capital efficiencies of centralised clearing.”

Source: GFO-X

LCH DigitalAssetClear now live

• LCH SA will provide clearing services through LCH DigitalAssetClear for cash-settled Bitcoin index futures and options contracts, traded on UK FCA-regulated digital asset derivatives trading venue, GFO-X.
• ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nomura International Plc and Standard Chartered Bank are the first clearing members to join the new service.

• LCH DigitalAssetClear service will provide market participants with access to clearing of digital asset derivatives in a regulated environment.
• Demonstrates LCH SA’s commitment to bringing the benefits of clearing to this growing asset class and expanding its services as a truly international clearing house.

LSEG announces that LCH SA has launched its new LCH DigitalAssetClear service. LCH DigitalAssetClear will provide market participants with access to the clearing of digital asset derivatives traded on GFO-X, the UK’s first FCA-regulated, centrally-cleared multilateral trading facility (MTF) dedicated to digital asset futures and options. The launch of the service illustrates LCH SA’s diversification into new asset classes and demonstrates the continued expansion of LSEG’s post trade ecosystem. ABN AMRO Clearing Bank, Nomura International Plc and Standard Chartered Bank are the first clearing members offering clearing services to trading participants and market makers on LCH DigitalAssetClear.

 LCH DigitalAssetClear has been developed by LCH SA, in close consultation with GFO-X and market participants, to ensure their digital asset derivatives can be cleared through a service that is secure, segregated, highly regulated and focused solely on digital asset derivatives. All cash-settled Bitcoin index futures and options contracts traded on GFO-X will be cleared through LCH DigitalAssetClear using the GFO-X/Coin Metrics Single Asset Real-Time Bitcoin Index (GFOXBR), which is an EU Benchmark Regulation compliant reference rate for the U.S. dollar price of Bitcoin.

Marcus Robinson, Head of DigitalAssetClear and CDSClear, LCH, said: “We are delighted to launch this highly anticipated service from LCH SA. The regulated clearing infrastructure within LSEG’s post trade ecosystem has allowed us to build something meaningful for our participants and address the availability of options for a rapidly growing asset class. It is essential that we find ways to offer regulated, segregated and trusted routes to provide customers with a diverse breadth of services and we are excited to continue working with GFO-X to offer a regulated marketplace for this asset class.”

Arnab Sen, CEO and Co-Founder, GFO-X said: “We are excited to launch our UK regulated, centrally cleared, bitcoin futures and options venue in partnership with LCH SA. The combination of GFO-X’s dedicated digital asset derivatives offering and LCH DigitalAssetClear brings much needed choice and venue diversification to institutional investors. We believe the digital asset derivates market, in particular options, will grow exponentially but requires regulated and counterparty risk mitigation solutions to achieve scale. By integrating LCH DigitalAssetClear, our UK regulated venue brings much needed enhanced risk mitigation to digital asset derivatives.”

Learn more about LCH DigitalAssetClear here: LCH’s Bitcoin Regulated Clearing Solution

Source: LCH