Digital asset custodians are pushing further into financial services traditionally dominated by commercial banks. These trust entities are attempting to secure a role in US derivative clearing, an industry where billions of dollars are settled every day.
Market updates published on November 10, 2026, accompanied this development, showing ZEC down 10.12% at $1,048.06, BTC falling 1.99% to $73,656.84, and ETH dropping 3.60% to $2,052.23. At the same time, recent regulatory relief alongside shifting political power in Congress creates uncertainty surrounding the future status of crypto firms in this space.
Journalist Nate Kostar and editor Ana Paula Pereira documented how these custodians aim to grab market share from traditional financial institutions. Despite these ambitions, questions persist about whether digital asset firms can maintain a permanent foothold in bank-dominated settlement infrastructure.
For traders currently holding perpetual futures contracts, this push into US institutional derivatives settlement changes nothing directly regarding funding rates, account fees, or order book liquidity. Until these trust companies actively clear retail perpetual swaps, daily holding costs remain unaffected.
Source: cointelegraph — Can crypto trust firms compete with banks in US derivatives settlements?