Anchorage Digital Applies for CFTC Swap Dealer Registration
Anchorage Digital Swap Dealer, LLC has applied to the NFA for CFTC swap dealer registration. If approved, it plans European-style bitcoin and ether options of up to one year. The NFA review is open and no timeline was given.
Anchorage Digital is seeking to bring its crypto options business under the CFTC's swap dealer regime. On Nov. 5, the company said a new entity, Anchorage Digital Swap Dealer, LLC, had submitted its registration application to the National Futures Association (NFA).
The NFA has not finished its review, and Anchorage did not announce an effective registration date. CEO Nathan McCauley declined to offer a timeline.
"We aren't in a position to speculate on timing."
Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital
He added that "institutional demand for regulated access to digital asset derivatives continues to grow, and establishing a dedicated swap dealer entity is part of how we're building the infrastructure to meet it."
Crossing the $8 billion threshold
In a post on X, Anchorage said its options business was "scaling past the $8B CFTC's threshold for US based clients." The NFA defines that threshold as $8 billion in aggregate gross notional swaps entered into in connection with dealing activities over the preceding 12 months.
McCauley declined to disclose trading volumes or growth figures. He also declined to explain how Anchorage previously arranged options trades for clients, so the claim of crossing the threshold is not independently verified.
Anchorage attributes much of the growth to public companies holding bitcoin and ether on their balance sheets, along with asset managers and funds using options to manage exposure.
What the registration would cover
If approved, Anchorage Digital Swap Dealer expects to offer European-style bitcoin and ether options with maturities of up to one year. Anchorage said it may add products later, subject to its own approval process and regulatory requirements.
Registration would bring the entity under CFTC Part 23 swap dealer rules, the Dodd-Frank framework already applied to banks in interest rate, credit and FX markets. That means capital standards, risk management and margin requirements. Dealers must report transaction data to swap data repositories under Section 23.204 and make pre-trade disclosure of material risks, economic terms and conflicts of interest under Section 23.431. Uncleared swaps with swap entities and financial end users require daily variation margin. Counterparties may require segregation of initial margin under Section 23.701, though not of variation margin.
NFA registration also requires documentation attesting to compliance with swap dealer rules and, for new applicants, risk-management policies and procedures.
McCauley said the move would align Anchorage with the dealers its clients already trade with:
"It will bring our options business under the same federal framework as the dealers they already face."
Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage Digital
Context
Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. became the first federally chartered digital asset bank in 2021 and is regulated by the OCC. It added collateral management to its Atlas platform in March 2026 and acquired Securitize's wealth management unit in December 2025. Its recent custody work includes the expanded Bitso deal covering MXNB across six blockchains.
The filing arrives two days after the CFTC said perpetual futures on individual stocks can trade on US exchanges registered with both the CFTC and SEC.
