Derive Proposes Treasury Funding for US-Regulated Derivatives Push

Derive is asking its community to authorize the use of existing treasury assets for a push into U.S.-regulated derivatives markets, giving its Foundation and subsidiaries scope to pursue approvals, develop compliance systems and establish or acquire entities.

The governance proposal, posted Oct. 12, says Derive has already begun engaging with U.S. regulators and advisers. It envisages Derive technology supporting a regulated U.S. venue while the international exchange continues serving eligible non-U.S. participants.

The onchain options and perpetuals exchange handled roughly $4.24 billion in options notional volume over the trailing 30 days, according to DefiLlama data as of Oct. 12. That measures the notional value of options traded, not premiums paid.

The proposal is at the discussion stage, not an approved launch. Derive announced that it was “live on the Derive forum” and invited community feedback. The document sets no discussion deadline or vote date, and the latest proposals in Derive’s Snapshot space included no vote on the U.S. expansion at publication.

A Treasury Mandate, Not a Chosen License

The proposal would let the Foundation engage regulators, hire legal and compliance specialists, develop surveillance and clearing systems, and work with clearing firms, custodians and banking providers. It also permits establishing, acquiring, restructuring or capitalizing entities where necessary.

But it does not select a particular regulatory registration, final corporate structure or product set. Approval would authorize work toward a regulated market rather than settle how that market would operate.

For the treasury, the document authorizes “limited existing treasury assets” without specifying a spending amount. Routine legal, regulatory and implementation expenditure would not require separate governance proposals. Any material capital commitment beyond that phase would be considered separately once the regulatory path and requirements are clearer.

The Foundation would seek to retain ownership and stewardship of Derive’s core technology and intellectual property, with any future regulated U.S. business using that technology under commercial arrangements.

Separate From the V3 Rollout

The regulatory push follows Derive’s Oct. 8 announcement that its V3 migration was complete and trading had resumed. V3 replaces the Derive Chain-based setup with custody and proof verification on Ethereum mainnet, while order matching remains offchain, according to the V3 proposal.

That technical migration does not itself open the exchange to Americans. The V3 document says the centralized application and API “will continue not to be available to US persons,” distinguishing those access restrictions from the permissionless Layer 1 contracts.

The U.S. proposal commits to neither a launch date nor completing a launch if regulatory, legal or commercial conditions are unsatisfactory.