If you’re in the US, the legal counterparty for any exchange-traded (or OTC-traded-but-exchange-reported) is the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). The idea is

If you’re in the US, the legal counterparty for any exchange-traded (or OTC-traded-but-exchange-reported) is the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). The idea is that it’s a consortium of many exchanges and broker-dealers that can absorb any counterparty risk should the party who sold you can option contract become insolvent / unable to deliver. https://www.theocc.com/ https://www.theocc.com/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_Clearing_Corporation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Options_Clearing_Corporation