The CME Group Announces XRP Futures Contracts Launch
The CME Group, recognized as the world’s largest derivatives exchange, announced plans to introduce XRP futures contracts on May 19. Customers can trade two sizes of contracts: a micro contract representing 2,500 XRP and an exchange-traded contract representing 50,000 XRP. The futures will be cash-settled on the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate, calculated daily at 4:00 p.m. London time. This expansion of CME’s cryptocurrency product aims to provide institutional investors with increased access to the XRP market, which would be a big boost to trading and liquidity.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse Reacts
In response to the announcement, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse shared his excitement, saying, “While overdue in a bunch of ways, this is an incredibly important and exciting step in the continued growth of the XRP market!” His enthusiasm mirrors the mood across the Ripple community, with many viewing this as a leap forward for XRP, especially as the long-running SEC lawsuit finally nears its end.
While overdue in a bunch of ways, this is an incredibly important and exciting step in the continued growth of the XRP market!
https://t.co/mnwJXKH5hi
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) April 24, 2025
Bitcoin and Ethereum Futures Pave the Way for XRP Futures
Notably, futures products for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) paved the way for eventual spot Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) approvals by the SEC in 2024. CME’s Bitcoin futures were launched in January 2018, which became a major turning point for the crypto market, while Ethereum futures followed in February 2021.
Teucrium CEO Sal Gilbertie on XRP’s Role in Financial Use Cases
According to Sal Gilbertie, the CEO of Teucrium, XRP’s focus on real financial use cases continues to set it apart. “XRP was purpose-built for real financial use cases and today facilitates global value transfers through the fast, low-cost XRP Ledger,” Gilbertie noted.
His comments come after Teucrium launched the first U.S. ETF offering 2x daily leveraged exposure to XRP, the Teucrium 2x Daily Long XRP ETF (XXRP), which had accumulated $35 million in assets under management in just 10 trading days.
A Step Closer to an XRP Spot ETF
The launch of CME’s XRP futures could speed up the approval process for an XRP Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF) in the U.S. As highlighted in our previous article, major asset management firms like Franklin Templeton, Bitwise, ProShares, and 21Shares have already filed their applications to launch XRP ETFs with the SEC. Also, Coinbase just launched XRP Futures Contracts on its derivatives platform. This shows that the financial space is waiting to jump on the XRP bandwagon.
At the same time, XRP has been showing strength in the market, far above its $2.00 support level. In the past 24 hours, XRP has increased by a meager 0.56%, whereas over the last week it’s increased by 5.8%. XRP is trading at $2.20 currently and has a 24-hour trading volume of $3.3 billion, which shows immense investor confidence and optimism regarding the future trend.