Coinbase Secures CFTC Approval for USDC-Native 24/7 Derivatives Clearing and Partners with Citi on Stablecoin Payments

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission registered Coinbase Clearing LLC as a derivatives clearing organization on September 28, making it the first USDC-native clearinghouse. It can clear fully collateralized futures, options on futures and swaps, and it replaces bank rails with USDC for both settlement and collateral, so margin calls and collateral transfers can happen around the clock rather than waiting for banks to open. Coinbase applied for registration on November 14, 2025.

The approval completes Coinbase's CFTC-regulated derivatives stack: an FCM (Coinbase Financial Markets), an exchange (Coinbase Derivatives) and now a clearinghouse. The scope is narrower than "owning everything," though. The registration covers only fully collateralized contracts; margined derivatives and the company's planned single-stock perpetuals stay with outside clearing partners, currently Nodal Clear. General counsel Molly Abraham said the approval lets Coinbase "bring regulated products to market with native USDC collateral and 24/7 settlement."

Separately, COIN and Citigroup (C) announced the implementation phase of a collaboration first disclosed in October 2025. Merchants on Spring by Citi, Citi's payment-acceptance platform, can now take stablecoin payments at checkout without holding stablecoins: Coinbase converts the crypto to fiat and Citi settles the funds as bank of record. In the other direction, Coinbase will use Citi's Virtual Account Wallet to power "Coinbase Virtual Accounts," where incoming fiat converts to stablecoins.

What to watch: whether Coinbase moves more product volume onto its own clearinghouse, whether it seeks approval for margined contracts, and how quickly Citi merchants actually switch on stablecoin acceptance. Both announcements tie Coinbase's revenue more closely to USDC as a settlement asset.