- Coinbase Derivatives: This is a part of Coinbase that focuses on futures trading, allowing people to bet on the future prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether.
- Nodal Clear: A clearinghouse that makes sure both sides of a trade meet their obligations. It helps reduce risk in futures markets by handling the money and collateral behind trades.
- USDC: A stablecoin issued by Circle. It’s a type of cryptocurrency that always aims to be worth exactly $1. It’s backed by real dollars and used for fast, stable transactions.
- Circle: The company that created and manages USDC. It’s based in the U.S. and focuses on digital financial services. In June 2025, it became a publicly traded company.
Coinbase Derivatives is teaming up with Nodal Clear to let traders use Circle’s USDC stablecoin as collateral in U.S. futures markets.
They announced on Wednesday that USDC will now be accepted to back up margined futures trades. This is meant to help more people use stablecoins in official, regulated markets.
But before this can happen, it needs approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Coinbase and Nodal Clear are working with the CFTC to make it happen.
If approved, this will be the first time USDC is officially used as collateral in a regulated market, with Coinbase Custody Trust in charge of holding the USDC.
“This will mark a meaningful milestone in our push to establish USDC as a true cash equivalent, while also offering increased efficiency through near-instant money movement and secure custody.”
Coinbase
Back in May, Nodal Clear began supporting the trading of certain crypto futures on the Coinbase Derivatives Exchange (CDE). These include Bitcoin Futures (BTI), Ether Futures (ETI), and smaller versions called nano Bitcoin (BIT) and nano Ether (ET) Futures.
This update comes shortly after Circle went public on the New York Stock Exchange on June 5. Its stock, listed as CRCL, started trading at $69.
Coinbase, which works closely with Circle on USDC, has already been a public company for over four years, since it launched on Nasdaq in April 2021.