GFO-X, which already has the backing of asset management M&G Investments, said on Monday it has also signed banks ABN Amro Clearing and Standard Chartered, and market-makers IMC and Virtu Financial as strategic partners.

The crypto derivatives venue, which aspires to be the first UK-based regulated and centrally cleared cryptocurrency futures and options market, also confirmed its plan to start trading in the first three months of next year, as first reported by FOW in October.

Arnab Sen, CEO and co-founder of GFO-X, said: “We are delighted to announce our strategic partners as we drive towards launch in Q1 next year. Their support is a clear and strong endorsement of our vision of the market structure required to deliver digital asset derivatives to large institutional clients.”

GFO-X said it has been working with these four firms and LCH’s new crypto derivatives clearing arm LCH DigitalAssetClear in preparation for launch.

LCH secured in April last year approval to clear Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency derivatives through its Paris-based entity LCH SA.

Osi Lilian, IMC Strategic Investments co-lead, said: “IMC was proud to be one of the earliest investors in GFO-X in 2021. We aligned with their vision of establishing the UK's first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue for digital asset derivatives, built on secure, high-performance technology and robust risk management.”

GFO-X also said on Monday it “looks forward to announcing additional exciting partnerships with leading financial institutions in the immediate future”.

Andy Ross, global head, Prime & Financing, Financing & Securities Service, Standard Chartered, said: “We’re delighted to support the launch of GFO-X derivatives and to join LCH SA as a general clearing member to enable our clients to trade and clear. We continue to invest in servicing our clients broadly across the crypto space in coin, token and derivative form.”

Amsterdam-based D2X launched last week the first European regulated multi-lateral trading facility offering crypto derivatives.