CME Group To Launch Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar Futures Amid Crypto Lineup Expansion – Details
Leading derivatives trade CME plans so as to add futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) to proceed rising its roster of regulated crypto derivatives.
CME Adds New Altcoins To Crypto Derivatives Lineup
On Thursday, Chicago-based derivatives trade CME Group announced a brand new enlargement of its lineup of regulated crypto derivatives with the upcoming inclusion of Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures.
According to the announcement, the brand new crypto additions are anticipated to launch on February 9, 2026, though they’re nonetheless pending regulatory overview. In addition, they’ll supply each micro-sized and larger-sized contracts for the three cryptocurrencies.
For the usual Cardano futures, the contract will cowl 100,000 ADA, whereas the micro-sized ADA futures will include 10,000 tokens. In addition, the Chainlink and Stellar’s large-sized futures can be set at 5,000 LINK and 250,000 XLM, respectively, whereas the small-sized contracts will cowl 250 LINK and 12,500 XLM.
The upcoming Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures contracts construct on the derivatives trade’s present crypto suite, which incorporates 4 of the biggest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
In 2017, CME first launched Bitcoin (BTC) futures, adopted by the introduction of Ethereum (ETH) futures in 2021. In the primary half of 2025, the Chicago-based trade added Solana (SOL) and XRP futures to its lineup, introducing choices for each cryptocurrencies later within the yr.
Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products, highlighted the trade’s enlargement and improvement over the previous few years, affirming that “given crypto’s file development over the past yr, shoppers are searching for trusted, regulated merchandise to handle value threat in addition to extra instruments to realize publicity to this dynamic market.”
“With these new micro- and larger-size Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures contracts, market individuals will now have higher selection with enhanced flexibility and extra capital-efficiencies,” he added.
Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar Price Reaction
Despite the constructive improvement, the trajectory of ADA, LINK, and XLM remained principally unchanged, with the three altcoins persevering with their intraday correction. Chainlink and Stellar each noticed 4% declines from their Thursday highs, falling to the $13.60 and $0.225 ranges.
LINK has momentarily misplaced the $13.80 stage as support and is trying to carry the present space to stop additional bleeding. Similarly, XLM was additionally rejected from the Wednesday highs and bounced from the $0.230 earlier than persevering with its descent towards its two-day low.
Meanwhile, ADA was trying to reclaim the $0.41 space forward of the announcement, briefly bouncing from the current pullback. Notably, Cardano surged over 10% from the current lows towards the essential $0.42-$0.43 space.
However, the altcoin was rejected from this zone on Wednesday, retracing practically 9% from the native highs to retest the $0.40 stage. On Thursday morning, the cryptocurrency bounced from this space, however finally resumed its correction because the day progressed.
As a end result, Cardano has retraced most of this week’s positive aspects, at present buying and selling across the $0.391 mark.
