The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group is now considering the prospects of introducing futures based on cryptocurrencies with smaller market capital, including Solana’s SOL and Cardano’s ADA.
In a panel discussion at Digital Asset Summit in London, Payal Shah, CME’s director of equity and cryptocurrency products, revealed that the exchange is “looking at” introducing altcoin futures contracts given that eminent clients are requesting it.
Even so, Shah further stated that only after issues regarding price indexes and regulations are settled, altcoin futures will be launched. She also revealed that the CME’s existing bitcoin and ether futures depend on indexes based on price feeds from five exchanges.
She explained, “In terms of the other coins outside bitcoin and ether, we need firstly an index or we need the ability to create an index”.
Speaking on regulations, Shah identified the absence of regulatory certainty for altcoins in the United States.
Yet again pointing out the lack of certainty as to which US regulatory agency will have a say over altcoin-related issues, Shah asserted, “We need to know where to send the paperwork”.
It is worth noting that only Bitcoin and ether are considered as non-securities by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). However, in the past, the SEC has dubbed many altcoins as securities.
CME had first launched bitcoin futures in December 2017, followed by futures contracts for ether. Recently, the CME also introduced micro ether options.
Again last year, in April, CME denied rumors that it was launching dogecoin futures after reports were being circulated on Twitter.
