CME Group to Launch Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar Futures on Feb 9

Group 1 - CME Group plans to launch futures contracts for Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar on February 9, pending regulatory review [1] - The new products will include standard contracts of 100,000 ADA, 5,000 LINK, and 250,000 XLM, as well as micro contracts at one-tenth the size [1] - Futures allow traders to speculate on future prices without holding the actual tokens, providing institutional investors a compliant way to gain exposure [2] Group 2 - CME's cryptocurrency business experienced 139% year-over-year growth in 2025, with an average daily volume of 278,300 contracts worth $12 billion [3] - The February launch continues CME's expansion into alternative cryptocurrencies beyond Bitcoin and Ethereum, following the launches of Solana and XRP futures [4] - All three tokens (Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar) have shown elevated trading activity, with Cardano recording $703 million in 24-hour volume on January 15 [5] Group 3 - The launch of Chainlink futures coincides with Bitwise's launch of a Chainlink ETF on January 14, which competes with Grayscale's existing product [6] - Cardano is developing its ecosystem by ratifying a governance proposal to introduce more stablecoins through a 70 million ADA community fund [6]