CFTC No-Action Letter Opens $8.7 Billion Settlement Market to Trust Companies

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission issued no-action relief on Nov. 5 allowing derivatives clearinghouses to use trust companies for daily settlements with clearing members, a function previously restricted to banks under CFTC Regulation 39.14. The decision opens a settlement channel that carried an average of $8.7 billion per business day through CME Group's clearing systems in the first half of 2026, according to regulatory filings. Whether that opening survives a change in agency leadership is the question the letter itself does not answer.

The CFTC's Division of Clearing and Risk granted the relief following an Oct. 29 request from derivatives clearinghouse Nodal Clear. Trust companies may now perform daily settlements if they meet the same evaluation and monitoring requirements applied to traditional settlement banks. The letter resolves a gap between federal commodities law, which permits customer funds at banks or trust companies, and Regulation 39.14, which defined settlement banks only as banks.

CME's figures illustrate the scale of the opportunity. The $8.7 billion daily average in the first half of 2026 rose from $6.7 billion a day in 2025 — roughly a 30% increase. Those flows represent transfers between clearing firms to settle gains and losses, not fees earned by settlement banks; they nonetheless measure the infrastructure trust companies could increasingly help provide.

Which crypto firms are positioned?

Nodal Clear partnered with Coinbase in 2025 to integrate USDC into US futures trading. Coinbase Custody Trust was already expected to provide daily settlement services under that arrangement, Cointelegraph has learned.

Other firms have moved in parallel:

• BitGo launched its Global Markets division on Nov. 4, combining derivatives trading, financing, collateral management and settlement.
• Coinbase's national trust bank charter took effect on Nov. 6, letting Coinbase National Trust Company — a separate entity from Coinbase Custody Trust — provide federally supervised digital asset custody.
• Circle, Ripple, Crypto.com and Stripe-owned Bridge secured US national trust bank approvals from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in recent months.

The charters reflect an industry-wide push into federally regulated financial services, not a single firm's strategy.

Why are banks objecting?

Traditional banking groups contest the framework. In October, the Independent Community Bankers of America sued the OCC, arguing that national trust bank charter rules could allow crypto firms to conduct banklike activities without meeting all requirements imposed on conventional banks.

Cody Carbone, CEO of The Digital Chamber, told Cointelegraph that the CFTC's relief does not put trust companies in a better or worse position than banks. Trust companies and banks already compete for services permitted under their respective charters, and the decision gives clearinghouses more options without preventing banks from retaining business. "A trust company charter is not a regulatory shortcut," Carbone said.

That claim carries a caveat: the lawsuit against the OCC remains unresolved, and a court ruling could narrow what trust charters permit regardless of the CFTC's position.

How durable is the relief?

The CFTC chose a no-action letter rather than a formal rule amendment. The letter commits staff only to not recommending enforcement action against clearinghouses using trust companies if specified conditions are met; it does not change the underlying regulation and can be withdrawn without the public notice-and-comment process a rule amendment requires.

"A change in Commission leadership could withdraw the CFTC Letter. More formal Commission action, such as amending the regulation, would be necessary to avoid this potential risk," Jordan Yeagley, a shareholder at Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney, told Cointelegraph.

The agency's leadership is unusually thin. CFTC Chair Michael Selig remains the sole commissioner under a statutory structure providing for five, having led the regulator since December 2025 with four seats vacant.

The political environment shifted on Nov. 3, when Democrats won control of both chambers of Congress. The incoming Congress, seated in January, holds greater power to scrutinize the CFTC's agenda; the Senate confirms nominees to the vacant commissioner seats, and the House and Senate Agriculture Committees oversee the regulator. Sen. Sherrod Brown, who won Ohio's Senate race despite more than $60 million in opposition spending from crypto-backed PACs, could take a prominent role on the Senate Agriculture Committee.

In plain terms: trust companies have a genuine opening into billions in daily settlement flows, but it rests on revocable staff relief and an agency whose commission is three-quarters empty.