Lighter plans to apply to the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in November for designated contract market (DCM) and derivatives clearing organization (DCO) licenses, founder and CEO Vladimir Novakovski said at the company’s third-quarter investor meeting. According to Odaily, the applications are intended to support opening the platform’s business to U.S. institutional clients.

Novakovski said Lighter had held preliminary discussions with CFTC staff about applying existing regulatory principles to on-chain trading and clearing. After an application is formally submitted, the regulator can take up to 280 days to review it. The team expects its preparations to help move the approval process forward.

Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev previously said the company did not choose Lighter as a partner for its U.S. perpetual contracts business because of regulatory considerations. Following Lighter’s announcement, speculation resurfaced in the community about possible expanded cooperation with Robinhood, but no partnership has been officially confirmed.

LIT briefly rose 15% over 24 hours following the news and was quoted at $3.76.