The CME Derivative exchange is expected to list Futures Contract tied to three altcoins on February 9th, expanding its portfolio of regulated crypto assets beyond Bitcoin, Ether, XRP , and Solana.
Chicago-based Derivative exchangeCME Group is increasing its exposure to the altcoin market as demand for regulated crypto assets continues to expand in the U.S. CME announced on Thursday that it plans to list Futures Contract tied to Cardano, Chainlink , and Stellar on February 9th, subject to regulatory approval.
The proposed contracts would expand CME's suite of crypto asset Derivative under the purview of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which currently includes Futures Contract and options linked to Bitcoin, Ether, XRP , and Solana . The exchange said the new products are intended to meet growing interest from market participants seeking exposure to digital assets.
Diversifying products for investors.
CME plans to offer both standard and micro Futures Contract for each altcoin, with position sizes ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 ADA, 250 to 5,000 LINK, and 12,500 to 250,000 XLM. Futures Contract allow traders to gain exposure to price or hedge risk without directly holding the underlying Token , while the addition of micro-contracts suggests the product is designed to be more accessible to retail traders, depending on whether brokerage firms support it.
Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader, a US-based retail Futures Contract trading platform, believes that digital assets are approaching a global inflection point as they become increasingly integrated into investment portfolios. He stated that the new contracts reflect the growing demand from retail traders for managed crypto asset Futures Contract and a more diversified product selection.
This announcement follows recent moves by CME Group and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange to merge their crypto asset benchmark indices, rebranding the Nasdaq Crypto Index as the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index. This index tracks the prices of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, LINK, ADA , and Avalanche.
CME's move to add Futures Contract tied to three altcoins comes as the US Futures Contract market remains largely focused on BTC and ETH, with expansion into contracts linked to other digital assets only expected to be limited in 2025.
Coinbase offers CFTC-regulated Futures Contract pegged to BTC and ETH through its Coinbase Derivatives Exchange, launched in June 2023, for institutional clients before expanding to smaller-scale contracts in May 2025.
Kraken launched its domestic Derivative platform in July 2025, while Bitnomial took a more direct approach to altcoin Futures Contract , launching XRP Futures Contract in March and Aptos Futures Contract on Wednesday.
