CME Introduces Large and Micro Futures Contracts for ADA, LINK, and XLM

• CME to introduce futures for Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar starting Monday, introducing the three tokens to a vast institutional market.
• CEO Terry Duffy revealed in an earnings call that the company is exploring a CME Coin that would be deployed on a decentralized network.

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is set to introduce futures products for Cardano’s ADA, Chainlink’s LINK and Stellar’s XLM. As we previously reported, the three tokens will start trading on the platform on Monday, opening up a diverse market of regulated professional investors.

The three tokens will be structured for both institutional and retail traders. ADA’s institutional product will have a contract size of 100,000 ADA, while its micro product will have a 10,000 ADA contract size. Chainlink’s will have a 5,000 and 250 LINK cap, respectively, while Stellar’s will be at 250,000 and 12,500 XLM, respectively.

All three tokens have dipped significantly in the past day as the entire market stared at yet another pullback. ADA shed 8.6% to trade at $0,256, while LINK lost 11% to trade at $8.2. XLM shed 6% to change hands at $0.1535, making it the 20th largest crypto with a $5.02 billion market cap.

While holders of the three tokens hope that the CME launch will hand the cryptos a boost, historical evidence suggests they are unlikely to make a big impact. When XRP debuted on the platform last May, it only attracted $19 million in volume on its first day and was followed by a price dip. Solana did even less at just $12 million and its price remained unchanged after launching in March.

CME Coin and Tokenized Cash

The latest integrations mark yet crypto another initiative by the world’s largest derivatives trading venue. It currently supports futures contracts for Ethereum, Solana and XRP. Last year, it facilitated $12 billion daily on average in crypto trading volume, and with 24/7 crypto trading set to be introduced in Q2, this volume is expected to rise.

In an earnings call this week, the company hinted at a CME Coin and a tokenized cash project in partnership with Google. Responding to questions from analysts, CEO Terry Duffy said the company is working on “initiatives with our own coin that we could potentially put on a decentralized network.”

He stated:

The company declined to clarify to media outlets whether the proposed coin would be a stablecoin launched on public networks, like USDT, or a deposit token for in-house use like the JPM Coin by JP Morgan.