Solana (Sol) Futures was first traded on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s US derivatives exchange on March 17th.
In February, CME tilted its plan to list two different SOL futures contracts: standard contracts representing 500 SOLs and retail-friendly “micro” contracts representing 25 SOLs each.
They are the first regulated Solana futures to hit the US market after Coinbase was launched in February. The contract is resolved in cash rather than physical sol.
Preliminary data from the CME website shows that on March 17, Sol Futures, the first trading day of the contract, represents nearly 40,000 Sol, or nearly $5 million at its current price.
Early pricing data shows potentially bearish feelings about SOL among traders. CME does not publish final data on daily trading volumes until subsequent business days.
CME’s April futures contract traded at a price of $127 per SOL. That’s $2 per token, less than the contract that expires in March, CME data shows.
On March 16, trading companies Falconx and Stonex completed their first Sol Futures Trade at CME, they said.
“Solana has come a long way in the last five years,” Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, told Cointelegraph on March 17.
“Solana futures are open to CME today and Sol (Exchange-Traded Funds) will certainly be following soon,” Chung said.
CME listed Sol futures on March 17th. Source: CME
Related: Solana CME futures tips deduct ETF approval – exec
ETF Approved Odds
On March 13, Chung told the Cointelegraph that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) hopes in May that it will soon approve the Spot Solana ETF proposed by asset managers Vaneck and Canary Capital.
At least five ETF issuers have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission to list Spot Solana ETFs. Regulators must make a final decision on submission by October 2025.
Bloomberg Intelligence measures the likelihood that a Sol ETF will ultimately be approved at around 70%.
A futures contract is a standardized contract for buying and selling underlying assets on future dates.
They are commonly used for hedging and speculation by retailers and institutional investors. Futures also play a key support role in the Spot Cryptocurrency ETF, as regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark to measure the performance of digital assets.
CME already lists futures contracts for Bitcoin BTC and Ether ETH. US regulators approved ETFs for both of these cryptocurrencies last year.
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