It is quite possible that the United Kingdom would be witnessing the first centrally cleared trading venue used for digital asset derivatives when a partnership takes place between Global Futures and Options, and a London Stock Exchange Group.
It is intended that this service would be launched in the fourth quarter of the year. According to an announcement made on the 11th of April, LCH SA, the subsidiary based in Paris of the LSEG clearinghouse, is ready to provide multiple clearing services for the dollar-denominated, case-settled Bitcoin index futures and options contracts that would be traded on the GFOX venue. This plan does require some form of regulatory approval.
London Stock Exchange Creates New Clearing Service
GFO-X is usually regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the United Kingdom, which would help one operate the multilateral trading facility. The CEO and co-founder of GFO-X, Arnab Sen, went on to describe this company as the first regulated, as well as centrally cleared trading venue in the country that was focused solely on digital assets, futures, and options. The London Stock Exchange’s LCH SA has also created a segregated service for clearing, called the LCH DigitalAssetClear.
The head of this service, Frank Soussan, went on to state that the index futures and options of Bitcoin were a rapidly growing asset class, with a vastly increasing interest among the participants of institutional markets- who are all looking for access within a regulated environment- which everyone is familiar with.
