Solana (SOL) futures traded for the first time on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) Group’s US derivatives exchange on March 17 as the cryptocurrency’s mainstream adoption gains momentum.

In February, CME tipped plans to list two types of SOL futures contracts: standard contracts representing 500 SOL and retail-friendly “micro” contracts representing 25 SOL each. 

They are the first regulated Solana futures to hit the US market after Coinbase’s launched in February. The contracts are settled in cash, not physical SOL.

On March 17, the contracts’ first trading day, SOL futures representing a notional value of nearly 40,000 SOL, or nearly $5 million at current prices, changed hands on the exchange, according to preliminary data from CME’s website.

Early pricing data indicates a potentially bearish sentiment on SOL among traders. The CME does not publish finalized data on daily trading volumes until the subsequent business day. 

The CME’s April futures contracts traded at a price of $127 per SOL — $2 per token less than contracts expiring in March, CME data shows. 

On March 16, trading firms FalconX and StoneX completed the first-ever SOL futures trade on CME, they said.

“Solana has come a long way in the last five years,” Chris Chung, founder of Solana-based swap platform Titan, told Cointelegraph on March 17.

“Solana futures are going live on the CME today, and SOL [exchange-traded funds] will surely follow shortly behind,” Chung said. 

Related: Solana CME futures tip impending US ETF approvals — Exec

ETF approval odds

On March 13, Chung told Cointelegraph he expects the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to approve asset managers VanEck and Canary Capital’s proposed spot Solana ETFs as soon as May.

At least five ETF issuers have filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to list spot Solana ETFs. The regulator has until October 2025 to make a final decision on the filings. 

Bloomberg Intelligence gauges the likelihood that SOL ETFs are ultimately approved at approximately 70%.

Futures contracts are standardized agreements to buy or sell an underlying asset at a future date. 

They are commonly used for hedging and speculation by retail and institutional investors. Futures also play a crucial supporting role for spot cryptocurrency ETFs because regulated futures markets provide a stable benchmark for measuring a digital asset’s performance.

CME already lists futures contracts for Bitcoin BTC and Ether ETH. US regulators approved ETFs for both of those cryptocurrencies last year.

Magazine: 5 real use cases for useless memecoins