CME Group, the world’s biggest derivatives marketplace, announced that it’s launching Solana (SOL) futures on March 17.
What this means necessarily is that traders and investors will soon be able to best on the future price of Solana but without needing to buy the currency, according to the press release .
This still awaits regulatory approval, but if everything goes well, it will complement CME’s current offering, which already includes Bitcoin and Etherum futures.
Meanwhile, these new SOL futures will be available in two sizes: a micro contract of 25 SOL and a larger contract of 500 SOL. These contracts will be cash-settled, so the traders will settle their gains or losses in U.S dollars rather than actual Solana tokens.
The value of SOL will be based on the CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, which calculates the value of Solana once daily at 4:00 p.m. London time.
Giovanni Vicioso, Global Head of Cryptocurrency Products at CME Group, made a statement about the launch:
“With the launch of our new SOL futures contracts, we are responding to increasing client demand for a broader set of regulated products to manage cryptocurrency price risk.”
He also added that since the Solana ecosystem is expanding, these futures contracts will help traders invest and hedge risks in a better manner.
The announcement comes on the heels of other big investors showing interest in crypto. CME Group has reported an average daily volume for its crypto products increasing by 73% this year to 202,000 contracts traded per day. Open interest is also up 55%, with over 11,300 unique accounts actively trading.
