Tassat Is One Step Closer to Offering Crypto Derivatives With CFTC Approval

Tassat Derivatives has successfully acquired a swap execution facility (SEF) registration after securing regulator sign-off.

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) announced Thursday that it had approved the transfer of a SEF registration from trueEX LLC to Tassat on Nov. 6, nearly four months after the two companies reached an "agreement in principle." TrueEx was first granted the registration in January 2016.

Tassat, formerly known as trueDigital Holdings, said in July that it was looking to launch a "fully-regulated" cryptocurrency derivatives exchange in the U.S., on which it would offer customers physically-delivered bitcoin swaps and other products.

At the time, Tassat CEO Thomas Kim said "adding the exchange to our ecosystem delivers a complete end-to-end offering, currently unavailable today, that encompasses tokenization, payments, market data and settlement for the benefit of our clients and partners."

"TrueEX and Tassat met the requirement for transferring a SEF registration by demonstrating that Tassat will be in compliance with provisions of the Commodity Exchange Act and CFTC regulations applicable to SEFs after the registration is transferred. There are currently 19 registered SEFs, including Tassat," Wednesday's press release said.

Tassat, founded in early 2018, has been an active participant in the crypto community. The company helped Signature Bank build its Signet blockchain payments platform, launched last December. More recently, the company partnered with software provider AlgoTrader to offer institutional clients access to its upcoming crypto derivatives.

The company has also partnered with Inca Digital Securities and Kaiko to offer wider access to its over-the-counter bitcoin and ether reference rates.

With Wednesday's approval, Tassat is one step closer to offering clients a trading platform for its products. The company is still waiting to secure the designated contract market (DCM) registration trueEX also held.

The company is looking to compete with LedgerX, Bakkt/Intercontinental Exchange, Seed CX and ErisX in looking to offer physically-settled bitcoin derivatives products to U.S. customers.

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