Clearing House/Central Counterparty (CCP)

In traditional financial markets, central counterparties (CCPs) and clearing houses (CHs) play a critical role in ensuring safe and efficient trading. By acting as a central counterparty to both sides of a trade, a CCP eliminates counterparty credit risk, enhances market stability, and enables capital efficiency.

As digital assets evolve, the need for centralised clearing has never been greater. Today’s markets face fragmented liquidity, unpredictable settlement risk, and inefficient capital usage. Without a trusted intermediary, firms must navigate bilateral credit exposures and complex operational workflows—challenges that limit growth and participation.

ClearToken’s mission is to establish the foundation of trust in digital assets. Our clearing house will deliver the same risk management and capital efficiencies that have underpinned global financial markets for decades. Our clearing solution eliminates bilateral settlement risks, unlocks capital efficiencies, and provides the legal certainty required for institutional market participants.

Clearing members and their clients will benefit from a trusted regulated ecosystem that enhances market efficiency and mitigates risk.

Subject to regulatory approvals, we intend to launch with spot, fungible perpetual futures contracts, cleared repo and options in due course.

The Benefits of Clearing in Digital Assets

Reduced Counterparty Credit Risk

Replace bilateral exposure with ClearToken standing between buyers and sellers, ensuring every trade settles even if a counterparty defaults.

Optimised Capital Efficiency

Unlock capital through multilateral netting and portfolio margining, reducing collateral requirements compared to bilateral settlement.

Standardised Risk Management

Shift risk from individual venues to a regulated clearing house, with a multi-layered default waterfall and robust protections.

Seamless Trading & Settlement

Standardised clearing workflows integrated with our delivery vs payment (DvP) settlement service replaces fragmented and risky settlement processes and creates further netting opportunities.

Access to Fragmented Liquidity

Break down silos and connect liquidity pools across multiple venues through horizontal integration.

Regulatory Alignment

Our structure is designed to meet institutional requirements, providing a familiar, compliant environment that meets regulatory standards (subject to regulatory approvals).

Be Part of the Future of Digital Asset Market Structure

ClearToken is not just building market infrastructure. Together, we are shaping the future of institutional digital asset markets. There are two primary ways to join:

• Direct Members
  Market participants and their clients can leverage the robust and regulated clearing infrastructure by becoming direct members of the clearing house.
• Indirect Members
  Investors and trading firms can also access the benefits of our clearing house through their connections with direct members.

Through our working groups, you can help shape product specifications for cleared fungible perpetual futures, spot and repo markets as well as validating standards and procedural development.

Be part of the next evolution in market infrastructure. Learn more about how to join ClearToken CCP today.

Delivery vs Payment (DvP) Settlement Service

The real-time gross settlement (RTGS) models typical of digital assets have reintroduced risks that financial markets had spent decades eliminating.

In traditional markets, an intermediary simultaneously delivers assets and cash payments between buyers and sellers to eliminate counterparty and settlement risk.

However, high settlement fragmentation in digital assets causes most transactions to rely on free of payment (FoP) transfers. This reintroduces risk, as someone always has to deliver first, and may receive nothing in return.

ClearToken’s DvP settlement service will reintroduce trusted intermediation to digital asset settlement, replacing fragmented, bilateral processes with simultaneous exchange.

This also serves to reduce centralised digital exchanges’ 100%+ prefunding requirements designed to counter such risk, freeing liquidity and improving participants’ capital efficiency. Our integration with traditional financial banking infrastructure will facilitate ‘on and off ramping’ of fiat currency to the digital asset ecosystem, significantly reducing risk exposure on the cash leg.

Furthermore, through our intraday settlement cycles, participants of ClearToken’s network will be able to benefit from both T+0 velocity and the benefits of netting settlement obligations across all participating venues.

In our first phase from launch, we expect to settle the major cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and fiat currencies.

Why Use ClearToken’s DvP Net Settlement Service?

Eliminate Free of Payment (FoP) Risk

Remove settlement mismatches by ensuring netted transactions settle through standardised, centrally administered workflows.

Reduce Settlement Capital by Up to 98%

Multilateral netting compresses individual trades into a single net obligation per currency or asset, drastically lowering settlement capital requirements.

Streamline Treasury & Capital Management

No need for pre-funding at trading venues; assets can be retained at custodians or self-hosted, improving liquidity planning.

Seamless Integration Across Venues

Replace multiple venue-specific settlements with one consolidated net settlement, reducing reconciliation burdens and capital fragmentation.

Centrally Administered Rulebook

Standardised terms and procedures ensure a transparent, predictable settlement process.

Join Our DvP Settlement Working Groups

Be part of shaping the future of institutional digital asset settlement. Our working groups allow market participants to:

• Experience multilateral netting in action: reducing capital requirements and improving operational efficiency.
• Help define industry best practices: contributing to standardised terms and governance.
• Prepare for integration: ensuring a smooth transition to net settlement workflows.

The future of digital asset settlement is here. Learn more about participating in ClearToken’s DvP net settlement service today.

Digital Central Securities Depository

The Future of Digital Asset Securities Settlement: ClearToken’s CSD & the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS)

While ClearToken’s DvP service brings efficiency to net settlement, true legal finality requires a regulated central securities depository (CSD). UK regulators are working toward this goal through the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS); a regulatory framework designed to develop the first CSD for digital assets.

ClearToken is proud to be the first entrant into the DSS, passing through Gate 1 in December 2024.

What is the Digital Securities Sandbox (DSS)?

The DSS provides a controlled environment where regulators, market participants, and ClearToken can collaborate to define the future of legally final settlement for digital securities. This process is key to establishing a fully regulated DSD, which will:

• Provide True Legal Finality: Unlike existing settlement models, the CSD structure ensures that once a transaction is settled, it is legally irrevocable.
• Enhance Market Trust & Stability: Bring institutional confidence to digital asset settlement by applying well-established securities laws.
• Enable Full Lifecycle Asset Servicing: Supporting corporate actions, securities lending, and other key market functions.
• Facilitate Regulatory-Recognised Settlement: Ensuring compliance with global standards for digital securities.

Join the DSS Development Process

As part of the DSS initiative, ClearToken is engaging with regulators, market participants, and industry stakeholders to co-develop the future CSD framework.

Participants will:

• Help shape regulatory approaches to legally final settlement of digital assets.
• Influence DSD service design to meet institutional needs for security, efficiency, and trust.
• Jointly drive first use cases live within the sandbox environment to yield settlement efficiencies and improve collateral management.

The journey toward regulated, legally final digital securities settlement is underway. Join us in shaping the future of market structure.