Institutions will be able to post U.S. dollars held at N3XT as margin for crypto derivatives that trade around the clock, after the Wyoming-chartered bank joined Clear Markets’ Collateralizer network as a dollar custodian, the companies said in an announcement shared exclusively with Unchained ahead of its Thursday release.
N3XT launched in December 2025 under founder Scott Shay, the former chairman of Signature Bank, which collapsed in March 2023, and Jeffrey Wallis, now its CEO and president. It operates under Wyoming’s special purpose depository institution charter, which bars lending and requires liquid assets equal to 100% of deposits. N3XT says it holds cash and short-term U.S. Treasuries equal to its deposits, dollar for dollar, and its website states the bank is not FDIC insured.
“Capital markets are moving toward an increasingly 24/7 environment, and institutions need dollar infrastructure that can move instantly and with the markets,” Wallis said in the release shared with Unchained.
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How the Setup Works
Per the release, the bank is the custodian, holding the dollars under account-control agreements, and Clear Markets is the technology provider, which the companies said never takes custody of client funds.
Cash on deposit at N3XT can be pledged as collateral against swaps, options and forwards on the Clear Markets Swap Execution Facility (CMSEF), a round-the-clock institutional crypto derivatives venue with full CFTC registration since 2016, the companies said. The same dollars can also fund accounts at other exchanges or back loans, according to the companies.
Clear Markets runs Collateralizer as a stand-alone service, separate from CMSEF, that ties together a group of independent bank custodians for margin and collateral work, the company said.
Because N3XT moves dollars between its own accounts at any hour, the companies said, firms can answer initial and variation margin calls on nights and weekends, when crypto derivatives keep trading, without the cash leaving the bank.
“Our goal is to make it easier for institutions to trade swaps and other derivatives while holding their collateral safely at an independent bank custodian,” Shawn Dorsch, president of Clear Markets, said in the release.
The announcement did not give a go-live date, transaction volumes, fees or the names of any clients. In the release, Wallis said N3XT clients “can now use cash securely held at N3XT as collateral” for digital asset and real-world asset trading, while another passage of the same release says institutions “will be able to pledge” dollars.
The companies said they plan to look for more uses of N3XT’s always-on dollar transfers.
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