CHICAGO – The institutional bridge to altcoins just widened. CME Group confirmed Thursday it will list futures contracts for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on February 9, pending regulatory review. The move effectively greenlights three of the oldest altcoins for regulated institutional exposure, following a year of record volumes for the exchange’s crypto desk.
The Contract Specs
CME is deploying a dual-tier strategy to capture both institutional heavyweights and active retail flows. The specific contract sizes are:
- Cardano: 100,000 ADA (Standard) / 10,000 ADA (Micro)
- Chainlink: 5,000 LINK (Standard) / 250 LINK (Micro)
- Stellar: 250,000 XLM (Standard) / 12,500 XLM (Micro)
Giovanni Vicioso, CME’s Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products, noted the expansion aims to provide "trusted, regulated products to manage price risk," a direct response to client demand for deeper liquidity curves beyond Bitcoin and Ether.
Market Reaction & Institutional Context
Price action was immediate but measured, reflecting a market that had likely priced in the rumors. ADA held steady at $0.39, while XLM traded around $0.22. LINK showed resilience near $4.41. The real signal here isn’t the spot price. It’s the infrastructure. By offering regulated futures, CME forces clearinghouses and prime brokers to integrate these assets into their risk engines, drastically lowering the barrier for entry for hedge funds restricted from holding spot tokens.
The inclusion of micro contracts suggests the products are intended to be accessible to a wider audience, including retail traders, subject to broker availability.
This launch follows a record-breaking 2025 for CME, where average daily open interest across crypto products surged. With the "Big Two" (BTC, ETH) already entrenched, the addition of ADA, LINK, and XLM suggests traditional finance is now comfortable underwriting risk on high-cap utility tokens, moving the asset class further away from its speculative roots.
