u.today
Chicago-based derivatives giant CME Group has urged the holders of $XRP ahead of the launch of futures tied to the popular altcoin.
The much-awaited product is expected to go live on May 19.
CME inadvertently revealed its plans to introduce $XRP with a beta page on its website. The derivatives giant quickly moved to downplay the leak, claiming that it was merely a mock-up in a test environment.
However, $XRP did confirm its intention to launch such a product in April. The official confirmation came shortly after CME introduced Solana futures.
As reported by U.Today, Bitnomial rolled out the very first regulated $XRP-based futures in the US back in March.
CME launched pricing indices for the Ripple-linked token last July, which was a significant sign of $XRP's growing institutional adoption. Back then, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse clarified that the launch of the benchmark reference rate was the first step toward institutional crypto products.
The launch of $XRP futures is considered to be a crucial step before the potential approval of spot-based ETFs tracking the price of the cryptocurrency later this year.
As of now, there are more than a dozen pending applications from such major players as Franklin Templeton and Bitwise.
It remains to be seen how $XRP will react to the launch of CME futures. The token is currently trading at $2.56, according to CoinGecko data.
The price of Bitcoin famously peaked in 2018 shortly after the launch of CME's Bitcoin futures. This, of course, does not necessarily mean that $XRP is going to suffer the same fate, but there are some concerns about the potential impact of the token on the cryptocurrency's price action.