CME Opens Market for XRP Futures Trading

CME Rolls Out XRP Futures, Boosting Prospects for Spot XRP ETFs

The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) has officially launched XRP futures trading, marking the first regulated XRP futures contracts available in the United States.

Investors can trade two contract sizes—2,500 XRP and 50,000 XRP—both cash-settled and tied to the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate, which tracks XRP’s daily price at 4 p.m. London time.

CME’s derivatives platform already supports futures on bitcoin (BTC), ethereum (ETH), and solana (SOL), as well as options on bitcoin and ethereum. The solana futures, introduced in March, recorded modest initial activity with $12.3 million in daily notional volume and $7.8 million in open interest, trailing the debut volumes seen with bitcoin and ethereum futures.

XRP’s price fell by 3.45% in the last 24 hours.

This new offering is seen as a crucial step forward in the ongoing SEC review of spot XRP exchange-traded funds (ETFs). Several issuers have applied to launch spot XRP ETFs but are still awaiting regulatory approval.

“CME-traded XRP futures are now live under CFTC regulation,” said Nate Geraci, President of ETF Store. “The launch signals that spot XRP ETFs may soon follow.”

The previous SEC leadership under Chair Gary Gensler approved spot bitcoin and ethereum ETFs partly because regulated futures markets were already in place for those cryptocurrencies. With CME’s XRP futures debut, the path for spot XRP ETFs may be clearer.