Settlement

Settling at maturity

At maturity the position settles on its own, with neither side acting. The contract reads the settlement mark once, returns each side's initial margin, and clears the payout atomically in cash, in the position's stablecoin. The payout is notional times the gap between the locked rate and the fixing: one side pays, the other receives. See What is an NDF for the formula and the worked intuition. Variation margin has already settled the running P&L; see The Margin Engine.

The settlement fixing

The fixing is a time-weighted average, the same mark that valued the position throughout the trade, read once at maturity. It is not an EMTA fixing or a central-bank reference rate. Both sides accepted the source at binding, leaving no mark to dispute. See The Oracle for how the average resists a single-print move.

Closing early

Before maturity, both sides can end the position cooperatively. They co-sign a close at an agreed rate, and the contract accepts it only inside the trade's tolerance against the live mark. The money moves as at maturity: the contract pays the same cash difference and returns each side's initial margin. A close both sides have signed is a direct contract call the contract verifies itself, and it runs on-chain even if every CRX service is offline.