ClearToken Wins Approval From U.K.’s FCA for Digital Asset Settlement Service

ClearToken said it received authorization from the U.K.’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) for CT Settle, a delivery-versus-payment (DvP) net settlement system for digital assets, stablecoins and fiat currencies.

The London-based market infrastructure firm aims to solve one of the industry’s longest-standing pain points: capital inefficiency caused by the pre-funding of trades on exchanges and OTC markets, the company said Tuesday.

CT Settle enables true DvP settlement, allowing assets and payments to move simultaneously, reducing counterparty risk and freeing up capital by eliminating the need for prefunded collateral, the company said.

Backed by Nomura subsidiary Laser Digital amongst other investors, ClearToken is building a post-trade infrastructure for 24/7 digital markets. Its systems are designed to bring the risk management and legal certainty of traditional finance to crypto trading, mirroring models like CLS in foreign exchange.

Beyond CT Settle, the company plans to introduce a central counterparty clearing house (CCP), pending Bank of England approval, and extend its services to tokenized securities through the U.K.’s Digital Securities Sandbox.

The company is one of two added to the FCA’s registry of licensed crypto service providers this month. X Capital Group secured approval on Nov. 4.