Global Futures and Options, a digital assets-focused platform co-led by Arnab Sen, founder of Hong Kong-based hedge fund Harbour Capital Management, has teamed with the London Stock Exchange to launch a clearing service for crypto index futures and options trades.
GFO-X, which is licensed by the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority, is a start-up platform aimed at global institutional investors who want to trade digital asset derivatives.
LSEG’s Paris-based LCH SA clearing unit will introduce a new, segregated clearing service, DigitalAssetClear, for cash-settled dollar-denominated digital assets traded on GFO-X.
The new service is expected to launch in Q4 this year, pending regulatory approval from French and EU market authorities.
GFO-X’s inclusion of a long-established mainstream clearing house is aimed at reassuring investors after collapses in the crypto sector, including FTX exchange.
“Recent market events in the trading of digital assets have highlighted the need for a safe, regulated venue where large financial institutions can trade at scale, while keeping their clients’ assets protected,” said GFO-X CEO and co-founder Arnab Sen, whose Hong Kong-based Harbour Capital launched in 2010 with a pan-Asia ex-Japan long/short equity focus.
Rival CME Group already offers bitcoin futures and options, while CBOE acquired a digital asset exchange, ErisX. Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex is due to launch dollar and euro denominated futures on the FTSE bitcoin index next Monday.
Bitcoin index futures and options are a rapidly growing asset class, with growing interest among institutional investors, said Frank Soussan, head of LCH DigitalAssetClear.
