CME Group just made it a lot easier to bet on the broader crypto market without picking individual winners. The exchange giant launched its Nasdaq CME Crypto Index futures on June 8, giving traders exposure to eight leading cryptocurrencies through a single contract.
The futures track eight tokens via the Nasdaq CME Crypto Index: BTC, ETH, SOL, XRP, ADA, LINK, BCH, and XLM. The weighting is continuous and based on market capitalization, meaning Bitcoin and Ether dominate the index while smaller tokens like Stellar contribute proportionally less. The contracts settle to the Nasdaq CME Crypto Settlement Price Index, known as NCIS. They’re financially settled, which means no actual crypto changes hands.
CME is offering two contract sizes. The standard version runs $10 per index point, while the micro contract comes in at $1 per index point.
Why this matters for institutional crypto
CME has been methodically building out its crypto derivatives menu for years. Bitcoin futures launched back in 2017. Ether futures followed. Micro versions of both came later. But all of those are single-asset products.
