Why We're Building Settlement Financing & Lending on Canton
- Nirup Ramalingam
- Mar 2
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 4
By Nirup Ramalingam, CEO & Co-Founder
At BridgePort, we understand the infrastructure gap that real-time margin settlement creates – and we understand how to close it.
BridgePort is building real-time variation margin settlement for institutional crypto markets. In doing so, we identified a second infrastructure gap that existing solutions were not built to solve. That's why we have built the first Settlement Financing & Lending d’App on Canton.
The Infrastructure Gap
Infrequent variation margin calculation leads to unnecessary counterparty and credit risk – a problem we have been hearing consistently from institutional OTC crypto trading firms since our inception.
BridgePort is addressing this with the real-time VM settlement d'App on Canton, which allows counterparties to settle VM at set intervals throughout the day.
However, there is a second challenge: even when margin is settled more frequently, firms need the intraday funding to meet those calls as they arise.
Current solutions fall short in different ways: traditional credit lines don't operate around the clock; DeFi protocols lack the privacy and custody integration institutions require; and Exchange credit only works within single venues.
The gap is clear: institutions need intraday liquidity that operates continuously, integrates with institutional custody, maintains privacy, and settles atomically.
Nothing in the market does all four.
What We've Built and Why
We built the first ever settlement financing d’App on Canton because it's the only infrastructure that combines privacy-preserving architecture with institutional governance. Only authorized parties see transaction details. All assets remain in institutional custody. Multi-party authorization means no single party can move funds unilaterally. The application can also be used as a standalone lending d’App, enabling trading firms to pledge unutilized digital assets such as CBTC as collateral and draw USDC immediately to meet margin obligations – 24/7 on Canton Network. It's a natural extension of BridgePort's off-exchange settlement platform, taking the coordination layer we've built for trading firms and executing it on-chain where settlement needs to be atomic and continuous without compromising on security.
Enabling Capital Efficiency
The immediate benefit is avoiding forced liquidations. The larger opportunity is capital efficiency.
If a firm locks $150 million permanently as insurance against margin calls, and their trading desk generates 10% returns, they're leaving $15 million annually on the table. With Settlement Financing, they only lock collateral when they need funding – typically for hours, not permanently.
What's Next
Our Settlement Financing & Lending solution builds on BridgePort's off-exchange settlement expertise, extending our institutional coordination toolkit from off-chain workflows to on-chain execution. We are launching at DAS in March 2026, available to qualified institutional participants on Canton Network. Our real-time VM settlement application follows in Q2. Get Involved
If you're a trading firm interested in Settlement Financing or streamlining your settlement workflows and lending, we'd like to discuss how these d'Apps can benefit your trading operations and risk management. Visit bridgeportmq.com/bridgeportoncanton to find out more.
• • • •
