The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is officially launching XRP futures contracts on May 19, introducing institutional-grade derivatives for Ripple’s native token.
The move marks a major expansion of CME’s crypto offering, coming soon after its Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) futures products.
Breaking Down the New XRP Futures Contracts
According to a notice from April 24, the new offerings will provide traders with cash-settled exposure to XRP’s price movement based on the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate without requiring actual ownership of the asset.
They also come in two distinct contract sizes to accommodate different trading strategies. The standard XRP futures contract, listed under the ticker code XRP, represents 50,000 tokens with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.0005 per one, equating to $25 per contract.
For traders looking for smaller exposure, the Micro XRP futures contract (MXP) covers 2,500 XRP with the same minimum tick size of $0.0005, translating to $1.25 per contract.
After-hours participants were able to access the contracts from the evening of May 18 on CME Globex and CME ClearPort. Trading hours are set to follow the standard Sunday-to-Friday CME schedule, with a one-hour daily break beginning at 4 pm CT.
Per the CME notice, these contracts will be listed monthly for six consecutive months, and supplemented by four quarterly listings in March, June, September, and December. The minimum threshold for block trades stands at five contracts for standard futures and ten for micro futures, with trades required to be reported within 15-minute windows.
Additionally, fee structures vary significantly depending on participant type. Individual members will enjoy the lowest rates at $4 per standard contract and $0.75 for the micro one, while non-members will have to dig deeper into their pockets, respectively coughing up $7.50 and $1.15 for the standard and micro contracts.
Legal Overhang
The products’ launch comes only days after Judge Analisa Torres denied a joint motion by Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an indicative ruling on a $50 million settlement they had agreed on that would have ended a years-long legal spat between the two.
The judge, who previously declared that programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute security offerings, stated that it would be “procedurally improper” to approve the motion since neither the regulator nor the crypto payments company filed it correctly.
Meanwhile, despite the bullish implications of institutional adoption, the price of XRP has shown muted movement. At the time of writing, the token had dipped slightly by 1.3 in 24 hours and lost 2.6 across seven days. However, it maintains a 12.1 gain over the past month, suggesting some accumulation in anticipation of the futures rollout.
