Blockchain.com has applied for two U.S. regulatory approvals that could allow the company to offer prediction markets and cryptocurrency derivatives to American customers, CNBC reported Friday. The applications seek designation as a contract market and registration as a futures commission merchant, placing the products under the oversight of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.
Approval would give Blockchain.com a route to bring services now offered only outside the United States into the domestic market. Its non-U.S. customers can access prediction markets through Polymarket and perpetual futures through Hyperliquid, while U.S. residents are currently excluded from those products.
A designated contract market is a CFTC-regulated venue permitted to list futures and options contracts. Futures commission merchant registration would allow Blockchain.com to solicit or accept customer orders and handle funds connected with those trades, subject to the agency’s customer-protection, recordkeeping and compliance rules.
The two applications suggest that Blockchain.com is seeking to move beyond providing access to third-party offshore platforms and build a regulated U.S. structure for event-based contracts and crypto-linked derivatives. That approach would put the company in a more direct regulatory relationship with the CFTC, whose authority covers commodity derivatives markets.
Prediction markets enter a contested U.S. market
Prediction markets allow users to trade contracts tied to the outcome of future events, such as elections, economic releases or sports results. Prices generally reflect the market’s implied probability of an outcome, although participants can use the contracts for speculation or hedging rather than forecasting alone.
The products have drawn increasing attention from financial firms and crypto platforms, but their U.S. expansion has also faced legal and regulatory disputes. The central question is often whether an event contract should be treated as a regulated derivative or as a form of gambling subject to state-level restrictions.
Blockchain.com’s proposed CFTC path would place its potential U.S. offerings inside the federal derivatives framework. That would require the company to meet rules that differ materially from the access model used by offshore crypto venues, including standards covering market surveillance, customer handling and reporting.
Perpetual futures present a separate regulatory challenge. The contracts allow traders to take leveraged positions on asset prices without a fixed expiry date. They are widely used on offshore crypto platforms but have not been broadly available to U.S. retail customers through the same type of platform structure.
For Blockchain.com, bringing both prediction markets and perpetual futures into one regulated U.S. business would expand its product range beyond its established wallet and trading services. The company has not publicly detailed which event contracts or crypto derivatives it would seek to list if regulators approve the applications, according to the CNBC report.
Nyse arrangement points to a larger product plan
The filings follow Blockchain.com’s September agreement with the New York Stock Exchange, which was intended to give the company’s users access to tokenized U.S. stocks and exchange-traded funds through the NYSE’s planned digital trading platform.
The arrangement was described as access through the exchange’s forthcoming system rather than the launch of a public tokenized-equity market by Blockchain.com. Even so, it places the company alongside a growing group of financial and digital-asset firms trying to connect traditional securities with blockchain-based settlement or distribution systems.
Tokenized stocks and ETFs remain a sensitive category in the United States because the underlying instruments are securities, while the digital representation may introduce additional questions over custody, trading venues and investor protections. The NYSE agreement therefore complements Blockchain.com’s derivatives filings by tying its expansion plans to regulated market infrastructure rather than solely to crypto-native products.
A combined offering of digital-asset trading, tokenized securities access, derivatives and event markets could make Blockchain.com a more comprehensive financial application for U.S. users. It would also require the company to navigate multiple regulatory boundaries: the CFTC for commodities derivatives and the securities framework that applies to stock and ETF products.
Ipo preparations add pressure for regulated growth
Blockchain.com is also preparing for a potential public listing. The company confidentially filed for an initial public offering in May, according to the supplied report. Bloomberg reported last week that Blockchain.com was seeking to raise roughly $500 million at a valuation between $4 billion and $6 billion, with a listing targeted before the end of 2026.
The potential valuation range is below the $14 billion valuation Blockchain.com reached in a prior fundraising round. In April 2022, the company was reported to have held discussions with banks about a possible listing that year.
A U.S. IPO would likely place greater focus on the durability of the company’s revenue model and its ability to operate within clear regulatory boundaries. Prediction markets and derivatives could offer new sources of trading activity, but they also carry higher compliance demands than basic wallet services or spot crypto transactions.
The applications do not guarantee that Blockchain.com will receive the approvals or establish a timeline for a U.S. launch. They do show that the company is pursuing regulated access to products that have largely remained offshore for American users, while simultaneously positioning itself for a potential return to public markets.
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