For years, CME’s crypto business was a one-asset story: Bitcoin, backed by its liquid futures market, and since 2022, a growing options market. The introduction of Ethereum futures diversified its crypto offering, but it still remained tied to the market’s largest asset.
That narrative changed when it launched XRP and Solana futures. In just months, the open interest for SOL and XRP futures passed $1 billion. Solana hit the milestone in just five months, faster than it took both Bitcoin and Ethereum to reach the same mark when they launched.
That number matters. $1 billion in OI is the informal threshold where institutions start taking an asset seriously in derivatives. Below that, futures can be too thin to support basis trades, structured notes, or the hedges asset managers require. Above it, the contract starts to function like real financial plumbing. The speed at which Solana and XRP have crossed this line shows real institutional demand, not just speculative activity.
The flows also show how the “regulated stack” is broadening. Until recently, traders looking to short, lever up, or run basis strategies in anything beyond BTC and ETH were pushed offshore to Binance or OKX. CME’s push into Solana and XRP pulls some of that business into its clearinghouse, where collateral rules and accounting treatment are friendlier to funds.
The more liquidity migrates to CME, the easier it becomes for traditional desks to justify crypto allocations.
Options are the next leg.
With OI swelling, the infrastructure is now in place for CME to list Solana and XRP options just as it did with Bitcoin and Ethereum. That’s where structured products come to life: dealers can start quoting covered calls, asset managers can hedge volatility, and liquidity providers can run the same playbook that’s become standard in BTC/ETH.
It’s no accident that the conversation around Solana futures ETFs is running in parallel: derivatives depth is a prerequisite for ETF approval.
Solana’s climb to $1 billion OI took barely five months, outpacing the early trajectories of Bitcoin and Ethereum futures. For context, Ethereum futures needed more than a year to cross that bar after CME listed them in 2021.
Some of that is cyclical. Crypto is bigger now, with ETFs and institutional rails already in place. But part of it is specific: funds are clearly seeking exposure to Solana and XRP as distinct trades, not just as “altcoin beta.”
Solana’s throughput and huge DeFi/consumer stack make it a clear bet on “Ethereum-style” activity at a faster clip. For XRP, it’s the regulatory clarity after Ripple’s courtroom wins and the token’s legacy role in cross-border settlement. Both assets now have credible narratives that can be expressed in size through CME.
What this really signals is that the CME crypto mix is shifting from a duopoly to a portfolio. BTC and ETH still dominate, but the rise of XRP and Solana futures means that Q4 could be the first time traditional desks are genuinely running multi-asset crypto books inside a US-regulated clearinghouse.
If options follow, that portfolio expands into structured products, risk-transfer trades, and eventually ETF fuel.
