CME Group Announces First Trades for New Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar Cryptocurrency Futures

CHICAGO, Feb. 11, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced its new Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (Lumens) futures began trading Monday, February 9, with the first trades for LINK futures and Lumens (XLM) futures executed between FalconX and Marex, and the first trade for ADA futures executed between Cumberland DRW and Wintermute. 

"The early support we've seen for these contracts underscores growing client demand for trusted, regulated products to manage price risk and exposure in this dynamic market," said Giovanni Vicioso, Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products at CME Group. "The addition of these futures, available in both micro- and larger-sized contracts provide investors with the flexible, capital-efficient tools they need to support their cryptocurrency investment and hedging strategies."

"Being first to trade CME Group's new Lumens (XLM) and LINK futures reinforces our focus on building institutional access to the next wave of crypto assets," said Harry Benchimol, Co-Head of Derivatives Engine at Marex Solutions. "As a listed, investment-grade firm operating across both traditional and digital markets, Marex is uniquely positioned to bring these products to institutional clients at scale. While the institutional crypto market continues to broaden, these CME Group contracts expand the regulated futures toolkit to express views and manage risk across an expanding set of crypto assets. We're excited to help drive that next phase."

"The expansion of CME Group's regulated derivatives suite to include Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures provides a richer surface of opportunities for liquid crypto funds to trade spreads and long-short pairs," said Joshua Lim, Global Co-head of Markets, FalconX. "Asset selection has become increasingly important in our industry, and FalconX supports liquidity across all these new altcoin instruments."

"Cumberland DRW was pleased to execute the first block trade in CME Group's ADA futures, which marks another step forward in the evolution of regulated crypto derivatives," said Sudeep Gupta, Global Head of Cumberland Trading. "Building on the successful launch of SOL and XRP futures last year, the expansion of available crypto underlyings gives market participants more precise tools to manage distinct exposures and efficiently deploy capital across the ecosystem. We are proud to be an active participant with CME Group to broaden access to institutional-grade crypto risk management."

"CME Group's continued expansion of listed crypto derivatives is a clear reflection of how institutional participation in crypto markets is evolving," said Ethan Ren, Head of Options at Wintermute Group. "Newly listed altcoin futures give market participants a more standardized way to take and manage price exposure on a trusted, regulated venue, and Wintermute was pleased to execute the first ADA futures block trade."

For more information on these products, please visit cmegroup.com/cryptolaunch.

As the world's leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, cryptocurrencies, energy, agricultural products and metals.  The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world's leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing. 

CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC ("S&P DJI"). "S&P®", "S&P 500®", "SPY®", "SPX®", US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

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SOURCE CME Group