Blockchain.com and Binance.US Join a Crowded CFTC Queue

Blockchain.com said on Oct. 13 it filed with the CFTC to run a U.S. futures exchange and a derivatives broker. Those licenses would cover event contracts as well as crypto futures and options for U.S. customers.

Binance.US, the Miami exchange run by BAM Trading Services, has been described in Oct. 21 accounts as making a similar move, after CEO Stephen Gregory said in late July that the firm would apply in August. The pitch is prediction markets. The asset is a federal exchange seat, and the agency’s public docket is already full of names that got there first.

Blockchain.com Asked for an Exchange and a Broker Seat

In a Dallas-dated release, the company said it had filed for FCM and DCM licenses with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. A designated contract market is the federal status for a futures exchange. A futures commission merchant is the broker that can take customer orders and the funds behind them.

If both registrations clear, Blockchain.com said it would bring regulated crypto derivatives, including futures and options, and prediction-market contracts to U.S. retail and institutional users on its own app. Earlier this year it rolled out self-custodied prediction markets and perpetual futures for eligible users outside the United States, using partners rather than a U.S. exchange license.

Users should be able to manage their digital assets, trade derivatives, and take positions on real-world events easily, without jumping between different apps.

Peter Smith, Executive Chairman, CEO and Co-Founder, Blockchain.com press release

Smith, who is also a co-founder, said the filings build toward that setup in the United States “through the appropriate regulatory frameworks.” The company dates itself to 2011 and said it has supported more than 95 million wallets, more than 44 million confirmed accounts, and more than $1.1 trillion in crypto transactions, across more than 70 jurisdictions.

Over the past year it also pointed to MiCA authorization through Malta’s financial regulator, FCA registration in the United Kingdom, and a Cayman Islands virtual-asset service provider license. The U.S. ask is the heavier one. It wants to stop routing American event flow and derivatives through other venues, and to house them under CFTC rules on a platform it already runs.

The Public Docket Is Already Crowded

The CFTC’s public list of designated contract markets is the check against the press releases. It shows six new designations dated 2026 and 11 applications dated 2026 that are still pending. Blockchain.com does not appear on that table. Neither does BAM Trading Services or Binance.US.

A company can file and still wait while staff log the paperwork. Oct. 13 is recent. The gap still matters, because the queue in front of any new name is already a roster of event-market hopefuls, including Bullish Markets LLC, Sporttrade DCM LLC, Limitless Markets US, LLC, and ForumEX LLC, whose pending date is Aug. 21, 2026, the month Gregory had flagged for a Binance.US application. ForumEX is its own filing. Nothing on the table ties it to BAM Trading.

2026 CFTC CONTRACT MARKET ACTIONS

Kalshi has been designated since Nov. 3, 2020. Coinbase Derivatives, LLC has held the same status since Nov. 23, 2020. QCX LLC, now operating as Polymarket US, was designated on July 9, 2025. Gemini Titan, LLC was designated on Dec. 10, 2025. The 2026 class is an add-on to that base, not a green field.

WHAT WE KNOW

• Blockchain.com filing: The company said on Oct. 13 it applied for both DCM and FCM status, after telling reporters on Oct. 9 that the papers were in.
• The 2026 docket: Six designations and eleven pending applications carry 2026 dates on the CFTC table retrieved for this story.
• Binance.US plan: Gregory said in late July, at Rare Evo in Las Vegas, that Binance.US intended to apply in August for designated contract market status.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• Binance.US on the list: Oct. 21 accounts described a recent application, but BAM Trading and Binance.US still do not appear among pending DCMs on the public table.
• Approval timing: Neither firm published an application number or a decision date, and designation is not automatic.
• Deal terms: The $100 million Binance.US raise and the $4 billion to $6 billion Blockchain.com listing figures remain talk among people familiar with those processes, not closed results.

CFTC rulemaking on DCMs set a 180-day review clock for designation applications, with stays possible if a file is incomplete. A press release is not a listing date.

What a DCM License Lets a Crypto Firm List

A designated contract market is the CFTC’s license to operate a U.S. futures exchange, covering event contracts as well as crypto futures and options. Blockchain.com also applied to be a futures commission merchant, the broker that holds customer funds. Nothing lists until the agency designates the market.

To keep that status, a DCM has to meet the twenty-three core principles for contract markets in the Commodity Exchange Act, including system safeguards, recordkeeping, conflicts of interest, financial resources, and contracts that are not readily subject to manipulation. That is a heavier lift than plugging a partner’s widget into an app.

WHAT THE TWO LICENSES WOULD COVER

• The exchange seat: DCM status would let the firm list futures, options, and event contracts under CFTC oversight rather than send that flow to Kalshi, Polymarket, or an offshore book.
• The broker seat: FCM registration, which Blockchain.com also requested, would let it solicit and accept customer orders and the assets that margin those trades.
• The product mix: The company named crypto futures and options in the same breath as prediction-market contracts, for both retail and institutional U.S. users.
• The app promise: Smith’s case is that wallets, derivatives, and real-world event bets should live in one place, which is only legal in the United States if the licenses land.

Event contracts are the fashionable wrapper. The same paper would also reopen a path into U.S. crypto derivatives that spot platforms have struggled to own. The CFTC has, in parallel, floated an optional lane for retail crypto leverage that would pull more of that activity onto designated contract markets. A DCM is how a crypto firm sits inside that shift instead of watching it from a money-transmitter license.

Coinbase already has a derivatives exchange on the books. Gemini has Titan. Polymarket has a U.S. DCM under the QCX name. Crypto.com’s North American derivatives unit runs through the old Nadex designation. Newcomers are not inventing the category. They are asking to join a club that spent five years forming.

Binance.US Is Trying to Reprice a U.S. Comeback

Binance.US is the trade name of BAM Trading Services, Inc., a Miami company that licenses the Binance brand and says it shares common majority ownership with Binance Holdings while keeping separate management. It opened public trading on Sept. 24, 2019, after a FinCEN money-services registration on June 11, 2019. Gregory took the chief executive job in March 2026.

The U.S. arm shrank after Binance Holdings’ 2023 settlement with American authorities. Spot listings and staking remained. The broader product set did not. Gregory’s rebuild talk has covered lower fees, outside liquidity, restored state licenses, and a CFTC exchange application that would let Binance.US list event contracts, futures, and options instead of living on spot pairs alone.

As of June 2026, the company said it holds money-transmitter licenses in 32 states and territories under NMLS ID 1906829, and that it lists 200+ cryptocurrencies across 250+ pairs, with staking on 25+ assets. It also cites a SOC 2 Type II attestation completed in January 2026. Those are the credentials of a spot venue. They are not a DCM.

People familiar with a private round have described a raise of up to $100 million at about $1 billion. In 2022 the same company raised more than $200 million at a $4.5 billion pre-money valuation. The new target is about 22% of that earlier figure. Spokespeople for Binance.US declined to comment on the talks. The capital, if it arrives, is being tied to expansion that includes prediction markets and a push to win back state licenses it gave up.

That is why the CFTC paper is doing more work than a new tab in the app. A federal exchange designation would let Binance.US sell something other than discounted spot trades, and it would do so under an agency that is already designating event-market venues. Gregory said in July the filing would come in August. On Oct. 21, accounts of the race said a filing had gone in. The public table still does not show it.

Kalshi Still Clears Most of the Bets

The incumbents are not a rounding error. Pew Research Center’s analysis of The Block’s figures puts combined Kalshi and Polymarket volume at $17.5 billion in January 2026 and $53.0 billion in July. That July print is about three times the January combined total. Pew’s own chart stops at July; venue trackers then put Kalshi’s September book, on that venue alone, at $60.7 billion.

THE VOLUME THE NEWCOMERS WANT

• January 2026: $17.5 billion combined on Kalshi and Polymarket, including Polymarket US, in Pew’s series.
• July 2026: $53.0 billion on the same combined basis, after a June jump to $47.7 billion.
• September 2026, Kalshi only: $60.7 billion in tracker tallies for that exchange’s own contract volume, a different series from Pew’s combined run.

Sports flow has been doing a large share of that work, with football weeks pushing records on the regulated U.S. books. Crypto contracts trade on those venues too, which is part of the blur. Prediction shops have been adding perpetual-style crypto products, and crypto shops are now asking to list event contracts. The customer may see one screen. The licenses are still two industries trying to occupy the same federal box.

Fee income is moving toward games and elections because coin volumes have been quiet. That is the blunt reading of the Oct. 21 rush, and it is the objection that keeps coming back whenever another exchange announces an event-market plan. A DCM would let these firms put a Sunday slate next to a bitcoin future. The pairing is the business model, not a side quest.

Distribution is the other fight. Kalshi already has the liquidity, the sports regulars, and the brokerage pipes into retail apps. Polymarket has a U.S. exchange and a global book. A wallet company with 95 million wallets, or a branded U.S. exchange trying to climb back from a settlement hangover, can bring names. They cannot bring Kalshi’s September tape on day one, and they cannot list a single contract until the CFTC says they are a market.

Blockchain.com Wants the License Before It Lists

The CFTC paper also sits on a public-market calendar. Blockchain.com said on May 21 that it had confidentially submitted a draft S-1 to the Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed offering of Class A ordinary shares, without setting a share count or a price range. People briefed on later investor talks have described a raise of about $500 million at a valuation of $4 billion to $6 billion, with room to shrink the deal. The company has not confirmed those terms.

On Sept. 23 it also announced a memorandum of understanding with NYSE Group to explore tokenized versions of U.S.-listed stocks and exchange-traded funds. Wallets, tokenized stocks, event contracts, and crypto futures are the super-app Smith described. The CFTC licenses are the piece of that stack that U.S. law actually gates. A confidential S-1 can move while a DCM file sits in review. A live U.S. event book cannot.

THE FILING CALENDAR

1. May 21, 2026: Blockchain.com submits a confidential draft S-1 to the SEC for a proposed Class A offering.
2. Late July 2026: Gregory says at Rare Evo in Las Vegas that Binance.US plans to apply in August for DCM status.
3. Sept. 23, 2026: Blockchain.com and NYSE Group announce a memorandum of understanding on tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs.
4. Oct. 9, 2026: Blockchain.com tells reporters it has applied for DCM and FCM licenses.
5. Oct. 13, 2026: The company publishes the Dallas release confirming both CFTC filings.
6. Oct. 15, 2026: People familiar with Binance.US describe a raise of up to $100 million at about $1 billion; the firm declines to comment.
7. Oct. 21, 2026: Accounts of the prediction-market race describe Binance.US as having applied as well, while the CFTC’s public DCM table still lists neither firm.

None of those dates is a go-live. Designation still has to clear the 23 core principles, the 180-day review, and whatever fights states are already running over sports event contracts on the venues that launched first. Blockchain.com at least put a letter on the record. Binance.US is still, on the public docket, a July promise and an October rumor sitting behind eleven other 2026 files.

The licenses they want would let a crypto app house a football card and a bitcoin future under one federal roof. Until the CFTC writes their names onto the designated-contract-market list, that roof is still someone else’s.

Disclaimer: This article is news reporting and analysis for information only. It is not investment advice, legal advice, or a recommendation to trade cryptocurrencies, event contracts, futures, or options, and it is not an offer of any security. Readers should consult a licensed financial adviser, attorney, or futures professional before making any trading or listing decision. Figures, license statuses, and deal terms reflect the company statements, CFTC tables, and other sources cited here as of the dates on those materials and can change as applications move, rounds close, or the agency updates its docket.