CME Group will introduce Solana futures on March 17, pending regulatory approval, the operator of derivatives markets exchanges announced on Friday.
U.S. traders will be able to buy and sell both micro-sized contracts of 25 SOL and larger-sized contracts of 500 SOL, CME Group said.
"With the launch of our new SOL futures contracts, we are responding to increasing client demand for a broader set of regulated products to manage cryptocurrency price risk," Giovanni Vicioso, CME Group global head of cryptocurrency products, said in a statement.
If approved, it will be the first time institutions can get exposure to SOL, the sixth biggest cryptocurrency by market cap. Despite most digital assets falling on Friday, SOL was trading at $144.71 up nearly 6% over a 24-hour period, CoinGecko data shows.
In an emailed comment to Decrypt, Sui Chung, CEO of CF Benchmarks, which will provide pricing data to CME Group on SOL, wrote that if the futures are approved, a SOL ETF could be next.
"A regulated futures market has been the SEC's primary pre-requisite to approve a spot crypto ETF, as it gives the regulator confidence that perpetrators of market manipulation can be identified, acting as a deterrent, and thus protecting ETF investors," Chung said.
A SOL ETF would give investors exposure to the digital coin via regulated shares that trade on a stock exchange. Franklin Templeton, Grayscale, Bitwise, Canary, 21Shares, and VanEck are all seeking an SEC greenlight for Solana-based funds.
Those filings follow the dramatic success of funds based on the performance of Bitcoin and Ethereum, which started trading last year. Bitcoin funds now manage more than $90 million in assets.
CME Group is the world's biggest derivative marketplace, made up of four exchanges. Futures are a type of contract allowing an investor to buy or sell the underlying asset at a given price at a predetermined expiration date.
SOL is the native coin of the Solana smart contracts blockchain network. Developers use Solana to build decentralized apps and crypto products such as meme coins and decentralized exchanges. Solana competes with Ethereum as it is fast and cheap.
The network has caught the attention of traditional finance firms. Payments giant Visa announced it would use the blockchain's tech to accelerate credit card payments. Solana's payment protocol Solana Pay has integrated with the e-commerce platform Shopify, allowing merchants to accept stablecoin USDC via the blockchain.
Edited by James Rubin