New York-based financial technology firm trueDigital Holdings LLC is aiming to acquire the registrations of trueEX LLC in a bid to launch a fully-regulated crypto derivatives exchange, according to a press release published on July 12.

Per the release, trueDigital has concluded an agreement in principle to acquire the Designated Contract Market (DCM) and Swaps Execution Facility registrations of United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC)-regulated exchange trueEX LLC. The deal thus is subject to CFTC approval.

Upon approval, trueDigital will roll out a crypto derivatives exchange fully-regulated by the CFTC, where it will list physically-deliverable Bitcoin derivatives for institutional investors. 

TrueDigital CEO Thomas Kim said that “adding the exchange to our ecosystem delivers a complete end-to-end offering, currently unavailable today, that encompasses tokenization, payments, market data and settlement for the benefit of our clients and partners.”

Earlier in July, Chicago-based crypto exchange ErisX procured a derivatives clearing organization (DCO) license from the CFTC within its plans to make digital asset futures contracts available for trade on its regulated derivatives market later this year via its new DCO.

In late June, the CFTC also approved the application of LedgerX LLC for designation as a contract market. “LedgerX has requested that the CFTC amend its order of registration as a DCO, which limits LedgerX to clearing swaps, to allow it to clear futures listed on its DCM,” the official announcement read.