CME Group launched Futures Contract for ADA, XLM , and LINK after recording peak volume in January, with contract sizes of 100,000 ADA, 250,000 XLM , and 5,000 LINK, respectively.
CME Group announced the launch of Futures Contract for Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink, three long-standing altcoins that appeared at a time when the exchange had just recorded peak volume in January. These three assets had previously been prominent in strong altcoin market bull cycles, but have now quieted down following the 2026 market downturn.
CME continues to add new crypto assets and demonstrates confidence in the market by announcing plans to launch the CME coin. The Futures Contract were first announced on January 15th, featuring relatively stable crypto assets with limited growth potential during the 2025 bull cycle.
Accordingly, ADA Futures Contract will have a size equivalent to 100,000 ADA, along with a micro-futures version for 10,000 ADA. For Chainlink, the contract size is 5,000 LINK and 250 LINK, while Stellar Lumens will be traded with Futures Contract of 250,000 XLM or 12,500 XLM.
Following the news about Futures Contract on CME, ADA traded around $0.26, ranking 13th among crypto assets. LINK traded near its Dip at $8.68, ranking 18th; despite playing a key Vai in providing oracle data for DeFi and exchanges, the Token still functions as a utility Token and has failed to return to the $50 mark.
XLM is trading around $0.15, continuing to fluctuate within its familiar range. Stellar ambition to compete with Ripple has garnered some attention, but the project still lags behind in terms of adoption and practical deployment.
Development challenges and market sentiment
The biggest problem for both Cardano and Stellar is their slow growth in the app economy and difficulty attracting developers compared to other protocols. Stellar currently only has around $172 million in total value held (TVL), while Cardano has attracted approximately $127 million. Both emphasize institutional appeal, and Stellar has had numerous partnerships for cross-border payments, including a collaboration with IBM.
However, these assets have yet to regain the initial appeal from their early price surges. Cardano spends most of its time preparing for Hard Fork, while the level of chain adoption for applications remains very limited.
Over the past few years, ADA, XLM , and LINK have emerged as community-driven Token , becoming widely discussed in the market. However, a new generation of cryptocurrency investors is gradually shifting to other asset classes. CME Futures Contract can be used as a hedging tool for holding the underlying Token , similar to how complex Derivative strategies are applied to Bitcoin.
On social media, ADA 's mindshare has decreased by 26% in the last 24 hours to 0.2%, XLM 's mindshare has increased by 50% to 0.1%, while LINK has the highest mindshare among the three assets at 0.4% with a recent 68% increase. Based on the RSI indicator, ADA is not yet oversold and is showing a wait-and-see signal, XLM shows an overbought signal, while sentiment towards LINK is neutral but the Token is giving a sell signal.
Overall, all three assets remain tied to the market's pessimistic sentiment, and CME Futures Contract are likely to be used to hedge against downside risk.
