CME’s bold bet on Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures

The era of the crypto industry being seen as a two-asset town is officially over at the world’s largest derivatives marketplace.

On Jan. 15, CME Group announced plans to launch futures contracts for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) on Feb. 9, pending regulatory review.

This move represents a calculated signal from the Chicago-based exchange giant that the digital asset market has matured beyond the gravitational pull of Bitcoin and Ethereum into a diversified, risk-managed asset class.

The expansion introduces a deliberate two-tier structure designed to capture both institutional heavyweights and active retail traders.

The contracts will feature standard and micro sizes: 100,000 ADA and 10,000 ADA, 5,000 LINK and 250 LINK, and 250,000 XLM and 12,500 XLM.

By widening its “blue-chip” rails to include these three distinct assets, CME is effectively declaring that the infrastructure for crypto risk transfer is ready to handle a broader spectrum of blockchain utilities, from smart contract platforms to middleware and payments.

CME’s volume argument

The primary driver behind this expansion is visible in the exchange’s own scoreboard as its new listings come on the heels of a blowout year for CME’s crypto desk.

In 2025, the exchange reported record crypto futures and options activity, clocking an average daily volume (ADV) of 278,300 contracts. That figure represents approximately $12 billion in notional value changing hands every single day.

Perhaps more importantly for institutional adoption, average open interest (OI) stood at 313,900 contracts, representing about $26.4 billion in notional value.

These metrics suggest the market has crossed a threshold. Crypto at CME is no longer a niche experiment but a robust input into global portfolio construction.

The 2025 data reveal that scale is increasingly driven by accessibility rather than by large block trades alone. In its annual recap, CME noted that crypto ADV rose 139% year over year to a record 278,000 contracts.

Notably, the engine room of this growth has been the “micro” suite. Micro ETH futures averaged 144,000 contracts per day, while Micro Bitcoin futures averaged 75,000 per day.

This distribution model allows for granular hedging and speculative positioning, a feature that was on full display during the market’s volatility spikes.

On Nov. 21, 2025, the complex hit an all-time daily volume record of 794,903 contracts. The micro suite alone accounted for 676,088 of those, with Micro Bitcoin futures and options reaching 210,347 that day.

For CME, the lesson was clear: if you build accessible, regulated rails, the volume will follow.

The graduation playbook

Meanwhile, CME is not entering this expansion blind as it has developed a proven playbook for “graduating” assets into the regulated sphere, validated by the performance of Solana and XRP.

When the exchange rolled out futures for those assets in 2025, they quickly became some of the fastest-adopted contracts in its history.

For context, more than 540,000 Solana futures had traded by mid-September 2025, since their March 17 launch, representing about $22.3 billion in notional value.

XRP showed similar traction, with more than 370,000 futures traded since its May 19 launch, totaling roughly $16.2 billion in notional value.

CME also flagged record monthly average daily volume and open interest metrics for both assets in August 2025, proving that liquidity can pool around specific altcoins if the venue is trusted.

This precedent is crucial for understanding the ADA, LINK, and XLM listings.

CME is likely betting that these assets, like SOL and XRP, have sufficient “graduated” status to support an institutional derivatives market.

The move reinforces the narrative that regulated futures can accumulate real traction for select assets, effectively pulling volume away from offshore perpetual swap markets and into a cleared, US-regulated environment.

Why CME is betting on ADA, LINK, and XLM

CME’s selection of these three specific tokens offers insight into how institutional investors are beginning to categorize crypto assets.

Industry observers noted that this represents diversification of “beta,” or market exposure.

Cardano functions as a classic Layer 1 instrument, allowing traders to hedge or take exposure to a smart contract ecosystem distinct from Ethereum.

Meanwhile, Chainlink represents “infrastructure beta,” serving as a proxy for the middleware oracle networks that connect on-chain applications to off-chain data.

Stellar is associated with payments and cross-border value transfer, a narrative that frequently resurfaces during discussions of tokenized cash and compliance-friendly settlement.

Crucially, the plumbing for these contracts has been in place longer than many realize. CME’s contracts are cash-settled based on CME CF reference rates, which are designed to be transparent and replicable.

Stellar, for instance, has been part of this benchmark universe for years. CME Globex notices from as far back as April 2022 listed the CME CF Stellar Lumens–Dollar Reference Rate (XLMUSD_RR) alongside other benchmark additions.

This benchmark maturity acts as a quiet prerequisite for institutional adoption, giving clearing members the assurance that settlement mechanisms will behave like traditional derivatives infrastructure.

The broader macro context further justifies the timing. CME has announced plans to make crypto futures and options available 24/7 (with a brief weekly maintenance window) beginning in early 2026, pending regulatory review.

The ETF catalyst

The strategic weight of CME’s move was confirmed almost immediately by a wave of new product filings.

Ahead of the Feb. 9 futures debut, ProShares filed for six new ETFs tied to these specific assets, aiming to capitalize on the regulated infrastructure CME is building.

The filings cover both standard and leveraged exposure: the ProShares Chainlink ETF, ProShares Cardano ETF, and ProShares Stellar ETF.

This is alongside their 2x leveraged counterparts, which include the ProShares Ultra Cardano ETF, ProShares Ultra Chainlink ETF, and ProShares Ultra Stellar ETF.

While tickers and fees remain to be announced, the filings list an effective date of March 31.

This timeline is instructive, as it suggests an orchestrated sequence in which CME futures establish the necessary liquidity, hedging capabilities, and reference pricing in February. This would then clear the path for structured retail products to launch roughly 7 weeks later.

Notably, the inclusion of “Ultra” versions is particularly significant, as leveraged ETFs typically rely heavily on regulated futures markets to deliver their magnified returns. Thus, the CME listing is a functional prerequisite for their existence.

Measuring success

The market will quickly determine if ADA, LINK, and XLM are ready for the big stage.

The true test will be whether these contracts become genuine “tradable markets” with persistent open interest and tight spreads, or if they remain occasional hedging tools.

Using CME’s 2025 average daily notional of $12 billion as a baseline, a simple scenario analysis offers a framework for what success looks like over the first 90 days.

A “soft adoption” scenario, capturing just 0.1% of the share, would result in approximately $12 million in combined daily notional. This would be enough to sustain the listings but would indicate limited institutional integration.

Meanwhile, a “base case” of 0.5% share would yield roughly $60 million per day, consistent with steady hedging and meaningful market-making participation.

However, a “breakout” scenario with a 1.5% share would translate into about $180 million per day. Such a figure would signal that the onshore complex has become a genuine venue for altcoin risk transfer, likely paving the way for deeper options liquidity.