London, 14 September 2026: ClearToken, the digital financial market infrastructure group, has formally applied to the Bank of England for authorisation to offer its CT Clear service by becoming a central counterparty (CCP).

CT Clear is designed to clear digital and tokenised assets, enabling netting across spot and futures products on a 24/7 basis, starting with fiat currencies, cryptoassets and stablecoins.

The application follows a period of pre-application engagement with the Bank of England and commences the Bank’s statutory assessment under UK EMIR.

If authorised, ClearToken would be only the fourth CCP permitted in the UK, alongside LCH, ICE Clear Europe and LME Clear, and the first since 2014. It would be the first globally established CCP to horizontally clear markets that trade continuously.

Whilst tokenisation is not a new concept, ClearToken is building infrastructure to truly enable it in wholesale finance for the first time, in the most important markets for banks, and will enable an entirely new class of financial services around a 24/7 tokenised world.

The problem CT Clear will solve

Digital asset markets in spot and derivatives are one of the fastest growing asset classes. However, market structure remains fragmented and immature. An institution running the same position across five venues posts margin five times, manages five sets of collateral, and carries five bilateral credit exposures. Capital that should back risk sits idle in duplicate instead. This is not a technology problem and it will not be solved by a faster venue. It is the problem clearing was designed to solve in traditional markets, and it has yet to be solved for digital asset markets.

ClearToken’s unique horizontal clearing model

CT Clear is being built as a venue-neutral service, so that institutions trading across multiple execution venues deal with one counterparty and net their exposures into a single, efficient position.

The model is being built for banks, prime brokers, and institutional participants trading across venues and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, for whom cross-venue netting is the difference between capital held against a fragmented set of bilateral exposures and capital held against one net number.

CT Clear matches the ‘always on’ operating hours of the markets it serves, clearing both spot and futures products 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The first product set covers cryptoassets, stablecoins and fiat currencies.

The CT Clear service is being built to become a single clearing venue across both digital and tokenised traditional assets, and ClearToken intends over time, and subject to the necessary approvals, to extend the model to securities and associated derivatives.

What comes next

The UK CCP application is the foundation of a broader strategy to bring CT Clear to the world’s major markets. ClearToken intends to build further by seeking authorisation as a derivatives clearing organisation (DCO) with the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and recognition in the European Union and Abu Dhabi Global Market.

Benjamin Santos-Stephens, Founder and CEO, ClearToken, said: “We’re delighted to reach this latest moment in ClearToken’s development. It is the next milestone in our strategy to bridge the gap between the digital assets market and traditional financial institutions. I am immensely proud of our diligent team, all of whom had a hand in getting us to this point.”

He added: “Subject to final approval, we are delivering a series of firsts for the market: CT Clear will be the first CCP approval in more than ten years; it will be the first future-proofed cloud native clearing infrastructure in the UK; it will be the first clearing service which operates 24/7 to match the needs of the market and will be cross product netted from day 1; and, it will be the first time that digital property will be cleared under UK legislation. This all adds up to a very exciting time not just for us, but for the markets we were built to serve, as we work to deliver a 21^st century solution ready for the challenges and opportunities which agentic finance and DLT can offer.”

Niki Beattie, Chair, ClearToken, said: “These developments show that the UK is forging ahead to maintain its place as a global financial centre, and the Bank of England has demonstrated throughout this process, how it balances its role as a regulator providing appropriate safeguards, and also acts as a major facilitator of UK innovation. The UK Government has also shown significant leadership, by delivering the Property (Digital Assets etc) Act 2025, unique to the UK, which paved the way for tokenisation and digital property.”

She added: “We are grateful to the UK Government and the Bank of England for their support. Our team is proud to work alongside them and other world-leading organisations, as we press on to deliver the financial market infrastructure that the global economy needs today and long into the future.”

ENDS

To learn more about ClearToken, please visit www.cleartoken.io or reach out to info@cleartoken.io.

Media Contacts

ClearToken via Streets Consulting

Andrew Dunn

andrew.dunn@streetsconsulting.com

+44 (0)20 7073 2649

About ClearToken