CME dives further into $85 trillion digital assets market with Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures

CME Group unveiled plans to further dive into the $95 trillion global digital asset derivatives markets, with the introduction of Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures on June 8, pending regulatory review.

The futures will be the company’s first market-cap-weighted futures contract, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace said in a statement on Thursday. Available to trade in micro-sized and larger contracts, the contracts provide a capital-efficient way for participants to gain exposure to the top cryptocurrencies through a single, financially settled instrument.

The move comes as CME Group cements its status as the global center for institutional crypto pricing. CME’s crypto product suite crossed $7.3 trillion in total lifetime notional volume earlier this year. This new index product allows CME to target a larger share of the broader global market, which currently sees an average daily turnover of $264.5 billion. The yearly trading volume totaled $85.7 trillion, according to a Coinglass report last year.

The CME’s index futures reveal follows its announcement last week that it plans to launch bitcoin volatility futures on June 1 pending regulatory approval, bringing an easy way to bet on the degree of price swings.

“Demand for regulated cryptocurrency futures continues to increase, with average daily volume in our suite up 43% year-to-date,” said Giovanni Vicioso, the global head of cryptocurrency products.

In the first quarter of 2026 alone, CME’s crypto average daily volume (ADV) surged to 310,000 contracts from 191,000 the year before. “As investment in this market continues, these new futures will provide another way for investors to manage their risk.”

The launch represents a strategic pivot toward “basket trading.” While single-asset futures for bitcoin and ether have dominated the regulated space, such indexes allow investors to trade the broad-market benchmarks.

At expiration, the contracts will settle to the value of the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index. As of May 14, the index includes a diversified mix of BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, and XLM, covering the vast majority of the total crypto market capitalization.

Vicioso explained that the CME-Nasdaq crypto index futures offer investors a regulated, cost-effective, and convenient way to hedge or gain broad-based exposure to the overall crypto market—a sector where derivatives now account for nearly 80% of all global trading activity.