Wall Street is extending trading hours faster than settlement systems can keep up, with CME opening crypto derivatives markets on weekends in May while keeping settlement on business days. A June DTCC incident delayed a day’s settlement, trapping cash in central counterparty accounts at the Fed and reducing bank reserves, though the Chicago Fed reported no jump in short-term rates. Weekend trading forces institutions to pre-fund liquidity: Nodal members must cap weekend trading at half the customer’s excess margin or deduct unrealised losses, and stablecoin issuer Circle holds cash at partner banks to provide near-real-time redemptions around the clock. CME’s quarterly disclosures show a median largest single-participant payment obligation of $3.73 billion, rising to $24.31 billion under stress estimates, underscoring how payment size matters as much as opening hours. The Federal Reserve will add Sundays and holidays to Fedwire and the National Settlement Service no earlier than 2028, while FedNow’s $10 million transaction limit remains far below what some clearing firms need. The announced Nov. 23 OKXICE launch, covering more than 70 tokenised securities including 59 Direxion ETFs, still leaves unclear when related banking and redemption services will be available.
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