Growing Demand for Regulated Crypto Products Drives Expansion
Chicago-based derivatives exchange CME Group is increasing its exposure to altcoins as the demand for regulated cryptocurrency products continues to grow in the United States. The exchange announced plans to list futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on February 9th, pending regulatory approval.
These proposed contracts will broaden CME’s crypto derivatives offering, which is regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The existing suite includes futures and options linked to Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), XRP (XRP), and Solana (SOL). CME stated that the new offerings are designed to meet the increasing interest from market participants seeking exposure to digital assets.
CME plans to offer both standard and micro futures contracts for each of the new altcoins. The position sizes will range from 10,000 to 100,000 ADA, 250 to 5,000 LINK, and 12,500 to 250,000 XLM. Futures contracts allow traders to gain price exposure or hedge risk without directly holding the underlying tokens. The inclusion of micro contracts suggests these products are intended to be accessible to retail traders, contingent on broker support.
Martin Franchi, CEO of NinjaTrader, a US-based retail futures trading platform, commented on the development. He noted that digital assets are reaching a "global inflection point" as they become more integrated into investor portfolios. Franchi added that the new contracts reflect the growing demand from retail traders for regulated crypto futures and a wider selection of product choices.
This announcement follows a recent initiative by CME Group and the Nasdaq Stock Exchange to unify their crypto benchmarks. They have rebranded the Nasdaq Crypto Index to the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index, which tracks the prices of BTC, ETH, XRP, SOL, LINK, ADA, and Avalanche (AVAX).
Altcoin Futures Gain Traction in US Regulated Markets
CME's decision to introduce futures contracts for three altcoins comes at a time when the US crypto futures market is largely dominated by Bitcoin and Ether. Expansion into contracts linked to other digital assets has been limited in recent years.
Coinbase offers CFTC-regulated futures for BTC and ETH through its Coinbase Derivatives Exchange. This platform initially launched in June 2023 for institutional clients and later expanded access to smaller, retail-oriented contracts in May 2025.
Kraken, another prominent US-based exchange, launched a domestic derivatives platform in July 2025. This platform allows traders to access cryptocurrency futures listed on CME Group. While Kraken offers perpetual futures contracts for several altcoins on its global platform, US users are restricted to products listed on CME.
The derivatives exchange Bitnomial has adopted a more direct strategy for altcoin futures. In March, the company launched CFTC-regulated futures tied to Ripple’s XRP in the US. On Wednesday, Bitnomial introduced the first regulated monthly futures contracts for Aptos (APT). These contracts are currently available to institutional clients, with retail access anticipated in the coming weeks.
