ClearToken and Nasdaq today announced that ClearToken has adopted Nasdaq Eqlipse Clearing to support the development of its innovative new clearing and settlement service for digital assets. The technology serves as a real-time, multi-asset clearing and risk platform for both traditional and digital markets.
ClearToken will first launch a digital settlement service, CT Settle, supporting delivery-vs-payment (DvP) and netting for digital assets and fiat currencies, including cryptoassets and stablecoins, having recently received authorisation from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA).
“With our DvP service now ready to launch following FCA approval, we can begin offering settlement services that allow financial institutions to net their settlement exposures and to settle digital assets with greatly reduced settlement risk, addressing one of the most pressing issues for institutional investors in crypto markets today." said Steve Briscoe, Chief Information Officer of ClearToken. "Nasdaq’s clearing technology has allowed us to deliver a resilient and scalable infrastructure which is cloud native and meets the high standards demanded of financial market infrastructures in traditional markets, while also addressing the unique requirements of digital markets such as 24/7 processing and fractional ownership.”
Today, much of the digital asset market is characterised by bilateral trading conducted on a gross, unnetted basis, requiring participants and market makers to prefund their trades by putting up the total amount they trade with counterparties before entering transactions. ClearToken is actively working on establishing a full central counterparty clearing house for digital assets that connects to multiple trading venues, custodians, and settlement systems, rather than being tied to a single exchange or trading platform.
This will allow participants to interface a central counterparty rather than each other, streamlining transactions and reducing risk across the ecosystem. It will operate 24/7 to accommodate the around-the-clock nature of digital asset markets while providing real-time risk management through margin and default fund contributions.
"Capital inefficiency across the digital asset ecosystem is a significant barrier to achieving scale and supporting institutional adoption," said Magnus Haglind, Head of Capital Markets Technology at Nasdaq. "By bringing the benefits of centralized clearing to digital assets, this implementation demonstrates how proven market solutions can achieve capital efficiency while maintaining the highest standards of risk management and operational resilience. Nasdaq Eqlipse Clearing provides ClearToken the ability to accelerate the maturation of the digital asset ecosystem with robust, scalable technology."
Nasdaq’s Eqlipse Clearing platform draws on extensive expertise providing real-time solutions to over 20 central counterparty clearing houses worldwide. The platform offers comprehensive clearing, risk management and settlement capabilities for clearing houses across multiple asset classes and instruments, including digital assets. With a modular, scalable and resilient architecture, it provides support for the most demanding markets as well as the ability to scale down for low footprint setups and allows clients to adapt to mandated changes and launch new products and services with short time to market. Embedded AI assistants accelerate onboarding, boost operational efficiency, and maximize data accessibility across core clearing house processes.
Around the world, Nasdaq's technology is used by 97% of global systematically important banks, over half of the world's top 25 stock exchanges, 35 central banks and regulatory authorities, and 3,800+ clients across the financial services industry. As a scaled platform partner, Nasdaq draws on deep industry experience, technology expertise, and cloud managed service experience to help financial services companies solve their toughest operational challenges while advancing industrywide modernization.
