Chicago-based derivatives alternate CME Group is shifting to deepen its publicity to altcoins as demand for regulated crypto merchandise continues to develop in the USA.
CME Group said Thursday that it plans to listing futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (XLM) on Feb. 9, pending regulatory approval.
The proposed contracts would broaden CME’s crypto derivatives suite regulated by the Commodity Futures Buying and selling Fee, which incorporates futures and choices linked to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP) and Solana (SOL). The alternate stated the brand new choices are geared toward assembly rising curiosity from market members searching for publicity to digital belongings.
CME plans to supply each normal and micro futures contracts for every altcoin, with place sizes starting from 10,000 to 100,000 ADA, 250 to five,000 LINK and 12,500 to 250,000 XLM.
Futures permit merchants to achieve worth publicity or hedge threat with out holding the underlying tokens, and the inclusion of micro contracts suggests the merchandise are supposed to be accessible to retail merchants, topic to dealer help.
Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader, a US-based retail futures buying and selling platform, stated digital belongings are reaching a “world inflection level” as they change into extra built-in into investor portfolios, including that the brand new contracts mirror rising demand from retail merchants for regulated crypto futures and broader product alternative.
The announcement follows a latest transfer by CME Group and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange to unifiy their crypto benchmarks, rebranding the Nasdaq Crypto Index because the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index. The index tracks the value of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, LINK, ADA and Avalanche (AVAX).
Associated: CME rekindles ETH ‘super-cycle’ debate as Ether futures volume tops Bitcoin
Altcoin futures inch into US-regulated markets
CME’s transfer so as to add futures tied to a few altcoins comes because the US crypto futures market stays largely concentrated round BTC and ETH, with solely restricted growth into contracts linked to different digital belongings rising in 2025.
Coinbase provides CFTC-regulated futures tied to BTC and ETH by its Coinbase Derivatives Alternate, which launched in June 2023 for institutional shoppers earlier than increasing entry to smaller, retail-oriented contracts in Might 2025.
Kraken, one other main US-based alternate, launched a home derivatives platform in July 2025 that enables merchants to entry cryptocurrency futures listed on CME Group. Whereas the corporate provides perpetual futures contracts for a number of altcoins on its world platform, US customers are restricted to CME-listed merchandise.
Derivatives alternate Bitnomial has taken a extra direct method to altcoin futures. In March, the corporate launched CFTC-regulated futures tied to Ripple’s XRP within the US.
On Wednesday, Bitnomial launched the primary regulated monthly futures contracts tied to Aptos (APT). The contracts are initially obtainable to institutional shoppers, with retail entry anticipated within the coming weeks.
Cointelegraph by Nate Kostar CME Expands US Crypto Futures Lineup with New Altcoin Contracts cointelegraph.com 2026-01-15 18:11:41
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