CME Group just made it a lot easier for institutional traders to get diversified crypto exposure without juggling half a dozen positions. The derivatives giant launched its Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures on June 8, offering a single, financially settled contract that tracks a basket of seven major cryptocurrencies.
The index is not exactly a democracy. Bitcoin dominates with a 76.96% weighting. Ethereum comes in second at 12.68%. XRP holds 5.80%, and Solana accounts for 3.23%. The remaining three, Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar, collectively make up just 1.32% of the index, with weights of 0.65%, 0.37%, and 0.30% respectively.
The contracts settle financially against the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index, or NCIS. No physical delivery of tokens, no wallet headaches. Just cash settlement.
CME is offering two contract sizes: a standard version (ticker NCI) and a micro version (ticker MCI). The standard contract targets larger institutional players, while the micro size opens the door to smaller funds and even retail traders who want regulated futures exposure without committing to a full-sized position.
CME has been in the crypto futures business since 2017, when it launched Bitcoin futures. Ethereum futures followed, and Solana futures arrived more recently in March 2025. But all of those were single-asset products. The Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures represent CME’s first market-cap-weighted crypto basket futures offering, built in partnership with Nasdaq.
