CME Group Expands Derivatives Suite to Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar
CME Group will list ADA, LINK, and XLM futures on Feb 9, deepening institutional liquidity rails following a record $12B daily volume year.
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME Group) confirmed today it will list futures contracts for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on February 9, pending regulatory review. This marks the regulated exchange’s first major expansion into alt-L1s and oracle networks since adding Solana and XRP products in late 2025.
The Contract Specs
Institutional desks can now hedge specific exposure to these assets without holding the underlying tokens. The standardized contract sizing targets both high-frequency trading firms and retail aggregators:
- Cardano (ADA): 100,000 units (Standard) / 10,000 units (Micro)
- Chainlink (LINK): 5,000 units (Standard) / 250 units (Micro)
- Stellar (XLM): 250,000 units (Standard) / 12,500 units (Micro)
Giovanni Vicioso, CME’s Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products, noted the listing addresses client demand for "capital-efficiencies" in managing risk across a broader spectrum of the digital asset market.
Institutional Plumbing Widens
The selection of ADA, LINK, and XLM signals a risk-averse approach from the derivatives giant. Rather than chasing high-beta newer layers like Sui or Aptos, CME is integrating assets with multi-cycle liquidity histories. This follows a record-breaking 2025 for the exchange, which reported an average daily volume (ADV) of 278,300 contracts, representing roughly $12 billion in notional value daily.
For market makers, the Micro contracts (particularly LINK at 250 units) lower the barrier to entry for granular hedging strategies, likely tightening spreads on spot markets post-launch. The move places these three assets alongside Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, and XRP in the regulated U.S. futures clearing pipeline.
