CFTC Grants Supplemental No-Action Relief to Railbird Exchange and Bitnomial Clearinghouse

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has announced that its Division of Market Oversight and Division of Clearing and Risk have issued a supplemental no-action position covering specific reporting and recordkeeping requirements for Railbird Exchange, LLC and Bitnomial Clearinghouse, LLC. Under the terms of the letter, staff from the two divisions will not recommend enforcement action against Railbird Exchange, a designated contract market (DCM), or Bitnomial Clearinghouse, a registered derivatives clearing organization (DCO), as well as their participants. The relief applies to failures to comply with certain swap-related recordkeeping obligations and requirements to report data to swap data repositories for fully collateralized event contract transactions executed on or subject to the rules of Railbird and cleared through Bitnomial. The supplemental action updates and modifies the framework previously outlined in CFTC Letter No. 25-26 in response to a joint request from both entities. Among the key changes, the updated letter extends coverage to transactions cleared via Bitnomial and removes a prior condition that barred Railbird participants from clearing contracts through third-party clearing members. The CFTC confirmed that the no-action position remains subject to the specific conditions and terms set forth in the supplemental letter.