Blockchain.com has applied for U.S. regulatory registrations to offer prediction markets and crypto derivatives, seeking to bring American customers into businesses it already offers internationally through outside partners. The applications would give the crypto platform a route to operate its own regulated exchange and derivatives brokerage.
The move puts the company into a growing contest for event-contract trading, where customers take positions on real-world outcomes. It also lands as Washington proposes clearer federal rules for those contracts. Both tracks remain unfinished: filing an application is not permission to open a market.
An exchange and a brokerage under one roof
The company told CNBC on October 9 that it had applied for designated contract market status and registration as a futures commission merchant. The first concerns the exchange where contracts trade; the second concerns the intermediary handling customers’ derivatives business.
Chief executive and co-founder Peter Smith described the commercial goal:
Users should be able to manage their digital assets, trade derivatives and take positions on real-world events easily, without jumping between different apps. Our DCM and FCM applications build toward that future in the U.S. through the appropriate regulatory frameworks.
Blockchain.com already provides prediction markets through Polymarket and perpetual futures through Hyperliquid to some customers outside the United States. Securing its own registrations would let it build a U.S. offering rather than simply extend access to those overseas arrangements.
The distinction matters for customers and competitors. An exchange operator controls the venue and its trading rules, while a brokerage connects customers to derivatives markets. Bringing both functions into the same business could keep more activity inside Blockchain.com’s platform, but also brings separate compliance obligations.
As previously reported by Apex, the commission began consulting on a dedicated federal framework for certain leveraged retail crypto transactions on October 5. That earlier initiative also remained a consultation, rather than an approval of new exchanges.
A fresh proposal for event contracts
On October 9, the regulator published a separate proposal to explicitly include event contracts in the definition of a swap. It covers contracts based on sports, politics, cultural events and weather, addressing uncertainty over their classification under derivatives law.
Chairman Michael S. Selig set out the agency’s position:
Americans use event contracts to hedge risks, speculate, and provide the public with information about the outcome of future events. These products are commodity derivatives squarely within the CFTC’s regulatory remit under the Commodity Exchange Act and are within the agency’s exclusive jurisdiction.
The proposal opens a 30-day comment period measured from publication in the Federal Register. It does not settle every dispute over event trading, grant Blockchain.com a licence or approve its individual products.
Registration is the next hurdle
Existing exchange requirements include safeguards against manipulation, adequate financial resources, records and systems protections. Registered exchanges must also follow the applicable process for listing new contracts. Those obligations make obtaining exchange status different from receiving unrestricted permission to offer any wager or derivative.
For Blockchain.com, the immediate development is a bid to expand its U.S. business beyond existing crypto services. The next meaningful milestones are registration decisions and details of the products it would actually offer. A U.S. launch now depends on regulatory decisions and the company’s product rollout.