CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced on September 17 its plans to launch options on Ripple's XRP and Solana futures, pending regulatory approval. The launch is scheduled for October 13 and will include options on SOL, Micro SOL, XRP, and Micro XRP futures with daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly expiries.
The decision follows significant growth and liquidity in Solana and XRP futures. Since their launch, over 540,000 Solana futures contracts (notional value $22.3 billion) and 370,000 XRP futures contracts (notional value $16.2 billion) have traded. In August, XRP futures reached a record average daily open interest (ADOI) of 9,300 contracts worth $942 million, while Solana futures had an ADOI of 12,500 contracts valued at $895 million.
Cumberland and FalconX have partnered with CME to support liquidity for these options. Roman Makarov, head of Cumberland options trading at DRW, noted the launch reflects demand for Solana and XRP beyond Bitcoin and Ether. Institutional demand for hedging tools on these assets has accelerated due to growing digital asset treasuries.
At the time of writing, XRP price was trading sideways at $3.01, with a 19% drop in trading volume ahead of the Fed rate decision. SOL price rose nearly 0.50% to $234.46, with trading volume up over 10%, partly due to anticipation of a spot Solana ETF. CME XRP futures open interest increased over 2% to $1.28 billion, and SOL futures open interest climbed more than 6% to $1.91 billion in the last 24 hours.