Leading derivatives exchange CME plans to add futures contracts tied to Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), and Stellar (XLM) to continue growing its list of regulated crypto derivatives.
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CME Adds New Altcoins to Crypto Derivatives Lineup
On Thursday, Chicago-based exchange CME Group announced a new expansion to its regulated crypto derivatives lineup with the upcoming addition of Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures.
According to the announcement, new crypto additions are expected to begin on February 9, 2026, although they are still awaiting regulatory review. In addition, they will offer small and large size contracts for the three cryptocurrencies.
For standard Cardano futures, the contract will include 100,000 ADA, while the smaller size ADA future will include 10,000 tokens. Additionally, the large Chainlink and Stellar futures will be set at 5,000 LINK and 250,000 XLM, respectively, while the smaller contracts will include 250 LINK and 12,500 XLM.
Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar futures contracts build on the exchange’s existing crypto suite of derivatives, which includes the four largest cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.
In 2017, CME launched Bitcoin (BTC) futures for the first time, followed by the launch of Ethereum (ETH) futures in 2021. In the first half of 2025, the Chicago-based exchange added the future of Solana (SOL) and XRP to its list, introducing options for both cryptocurrencies later in the year.
Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products, highlighted the expansion and development of the industry over the past few years, confirming that “given the record growth of crypto in the past year, clients are looking for reliable, regulated products to manage price risk and more tools to gain exposure to this volatile market.”
“With these new Cardano, Chainlink and Stellar futures contracts, market participants will now have greater choice with improved flexibility and increased financial efficiency,” he added.
Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar Price Reaction
Despite the positive development, the trajectory of ADA, LINK, and XLM remained unchanged, while the three altcoins continued their intraday correction. Chainlink and Stellar both saw a 4% decline from their Thursday highs, down to $13.60 and $0.225 levels.
LINK temporarily lost the $13.80 level as support and is trying to hold the current position to prevent further bleeding. Similarly, XLM rebounded from Wednesday’s high and tumbled from $0.230 before continuing its decline towards its two-day low.
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Meanwhile, ADA was trying to recapture the $0.41 area before the announcement, briefly bouncing off the recent pullback. Notably, Cardano is down more than 10% from the recent decline to the key $0.42-$0.43 area.
However, the altcoin was rejected in this area on Wednesday, pulling back about 9% from the highs of the area to retest the level of $ 0.40. On Thursday morning, the cryptocurrency bounced from this area, but eventually resumed its correction as the day progressed.
As a result, Cardano has recouped most of this week’s gains, currently trading around the $0.391 mark.
Featured image from Unsplash.com, Chart from TradingView.com
