SOL and XRP Futures: CME Denies Rumors After Leak
Date: 2025-01-23 Author: Henry Casey Categories: CRYPTO PAYMENTS
The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), the world's leading player in derivatives trading, is believed to be considering the possibility of launching futures contracts on Solana and Ripple XRP. According to a leaked beta page of their website, the launch could have taken place as early as February 10. The page listed the key parameters of the new contracts, but was soon removed.
Fox Business journalist Eleanor Terrett reported that a CME representative explained that the page was a rough mockup to demonstrate the capabilities of the system, which accidentally ended up in the public domain.
“No official decisions have been made yet on the launch of futures contracts on these tokens,” the representative clarified.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffarth commented: “If true, this move is logical and predictable.”
According to the leaked data, the Solana and XRP futures contracts were to be offered in standard and micro sizes.
For Solana, the standard contract would be 500 SOL, while the micro contract would be 25 SOL. For XRP, the standard contract would be 50,000 XRP, while the micro contract would be 2,500 XRP. All contracts would be settled in US dollars, making them convenient for institutional investors who avoid direct settlement in cryptocurrency.
Investor optimism has been heightened by the re-election of Donald Trump and the resignation of former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler. Companies are working hard to launch products such as Solana and XRP ETFs.
On January 17, ProShares filed for an ETF based on Solana futures, while WisdomTree filed for an XRP ETF back in December 2024. Other companies, including Bitwise, 21Shares, and Canary Capital, are also in the running.
James Seyffarth noted that the introduction of Solana futures on the CME could answer questions about the liquidity of the current Solana futures market, which is dominated by Coinbase. “I’m not sure if Coinbase’s SOL futures are big or liquid enough,” he said in a recent tweet.
