DRW and Marex Trade First OTC Swap on Canton Using Tokenized S&P Index

Updated 13 October 2026: A second release from Derivnex and Canton names DRW as counterparty and Marex as swap provider, marks the launch of Derivnex's platform, and says it will start with equity and index derivatives.

Trading firms DRW and Marex have completed the first over-the-counter (OTC) swap on the Canton Network. OTC means the trade was agreed directly between the two firms, not on an exchange. The deal is a total return swap that tracks S&P Dow Jones Indices' iBoxx USD Liquid Investment Grade Index, a credit benchmark. Kaiko put a tokenized version of that index on Canton.

The trade also launches Derivnex, a platform that aims to move the management of institutional derivatives on-chain, from the trade itself through every event that follows. Derivnex says it will start with equity and index derivatives.

Two releases came out on October 13, 2026. S&P DJI, Kaiko and Derivnex announced the trade in a joint press release. A second release from Derivnex and Canton spells out the roles: DRW acted as counterparty and Marex as the swap provider. Some headlines say S&P made the swap. It did not. S&P supplied the index.

Who Did What in the Swap

Each party played a separate part, and the releases keep those parts distinct:

• DRW was the counterparty and Marex the swap provider. They executed the swap on Derivnex.
• Derivnex is an institutional OTC derivatives platform built on Canton. It uses the Common Domain Model (CDM), a standard format for describing derivatives.
• Kaiko tokenized the index on Canton. It also distributed the signed official S&P DJI index values that Derivnex uses to value the position for the life of the trade.
• S&P DJI owns the benchmark and licensed it for use by DRW and Marex Solutions.
• Canton provides the shared infrastructure, while keeping the confidentiality that bilateral trades between two firms need.

There is one loose end. The licence went to "Marex Solutions", while the Derivnex release names "Marex" as the swap provider. Neither release says which Marex entity actually traded. Marex Group trades on Nasdaq under the ticker MRX, and Nilesh Jethwa, CEO of Marex Solutions, commented on the deal.

The companies describe it as the first OTC derivative to reference a fully tokenized index on distributed ledger infrastructure. That is their own claim about their own trade.

What Actually Sits on Canton

The token is not just a price feed. It bundles the benchmark data with access permissions and usage rules, so S&P DJI keeps its licensing and intellectual property controls when the index moves onto a blockchain.

The swap itself lives on Canton as a smart contract holding the trade terms. That gives DRW and Marex one shared, synchronized record for valuations and other events during the life of the swap. Normally each firm would keep its own records and reconcile them against the other's.

DRW founder and CEO Don Wilson put the problem in back office terms:

"Uncleared OTC derivatives are a large and growing market with cumbersome back office workflows. With Derivnex on Canton, Marex and DRW are able to work from the same record, thereby streamlining processes."

Derivnex CEO George Harrington made a similar point: "OTC derivatives are one of the largest markets in institutional finance, but much of the infrastructure supporting them remains fragmented."

For S&P DJI, the appeal is a new way to sell an existing product. Cameron Drinkwater, its Chief Product Operating Officer, said: "Pairing a flagship index with controlled digital distribution through Kaiko extends our credit franchise into on-chain finance." Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran said the transaction "demonstrates how tokenized benchmark infrastructure can support new institutional markets and products."

Derivnex Starts With Equity and Index Products

Derivnex says it initially plans to focus on equity and index derivatives, including index, basket and single-name products. A basket product tracks a custom group of assets, and a single-name product tracks one company.

The pitch is that a swap is not finished when it is signed. Yuval Rooz, CEO and co-founder of Digital Asset, said: "Derivatives are a natural fit for programmable financial infrastructure because the transaction continues to evolve long after the initial trade."

The use of a common data standard is part of that case. Scott O'Malia, CEO of the derivatives industry body ISDA, said of the CDM: "Its use in platforms such as Derivnex demonstrates how industry standards can support greater automation and interoperability in derivatives markets at scale."

A Sample Trade With No Size Attached

The S&P DJI and Kaiko release calls this a sample transaction. It gives no notional size, no tenor (how long the swap runs) and no trade date beyond the announcement. So there is no way yet to judge whether real money of any scale changed hands.

That release also does not link to an on-chain record of the swap, and no Canton explorer entry for it could be verified for this article.

The next step is still only planned. The companies say future functionality is expected to connect Derivnex positions with digital cash and collateral on Canton, for margin and payments. Until that is live, cash and collateral for a trade like this still sit outside the chain. The test for the next announcement is whether it names a size, a date and a margin flow that settles on Canton.