What to know:
- CME Group has no plans to launch derivatives tied to meme coins, citing the absence of practical use cases.
- The exchange is seeing growing institutional interest in its Solana and XRP futures, which have generated billions in volume.
- CME is considering moving to 24/7 trading to align with crypto markets but has not yet made a formal decision.
- CME Group (CME), the world’s largest derivatives exchange, is steering clear of meme coins — even as issuers line up to bring more speculative tokens into mainstream finance.
- While asset managers like VanEck and 21Shares are pushing to launch spot exchange-traded products (ETPs) tied to coins like dogecoinand Trump Coin (TRUMP), CME is taking a different route.
- “We're launching these products based on underlying coins and tokens that have a use case, so I don't anticipate that we will be doing anything in the meme coin space, as the use case for such products is really not there,” said Gio Vicioso, CME’s global head of cryptocurrency products.
- Instead, CME is focused on tokens it sees as foundational to blockchain infrastructure. In recent months, the firm expanded its crypto derivatives lineup to include solana and XRP, in addition to its existing bitcoin and ethereumofferings.