CME Adds Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap Futures, Bringing Its Altcoin Count to a Nice Round 11 🎯

CME Group said Tuesday it will launch Bitcoin Cash and Uniswap futures on October 19, pending regulatory review, expanding its regulated crypto derivatives lineup to eleven single-asset products. Traders will be able to choose between standard and micro contracts, with Bitcoin Cash futures sized at 250 BCH and micros at 25 BCH, and Uniswap futures sized at 10,000 UNI with 1,000 UNI micros.

At the time of the announcement, Bitcoin Cash was trading at $338, up more than 25% on the day on a $6 billion market cap, while Uniswap's UNI token was changing hands at $9.28, up 5.5% in the past 24 hours, with a market cap of $5.75 billion. Bitcoin Cash split from Bitcoin in 2017, featuring a larger block size aimed at cheaper payments, while Uniswap operates the largest decentralized exchange in crypto, with UNI functioning as its governance token — holders vote on protocol upgrades rather than collect dividends.

"As crypto markets continue to mature, participants require broader, regulated tools to navigate evolving digital asset related price risk," said Giovanni Vicioso, CME's global head of cryptocurrency products, describing the new contracts as designed for capital efficiency and exposure to "key crypto networks" inside a round-the-clock, regulated venue. BCH and UNI follow the exchange's earlier 2026 additions of Avalanche and Sui futures, which launched May 4 after being announced in April, and February's rollout of Cardano, Chainlink, and Stellar contracts. Combined with Bitcoin, Ether, XRP, and Solana, those five brought CME's crypto suite to nine products before Tuesday's announcement.

CME said in its press release that its 2026 expansion into Cardano, Chainlink, Stellar, Avalanche, and Sui futures has generated more than $1 billion in total notional value year-to-date. Across the broader crypto complex, CME futures and options averaged 279,800 contracts daily in the first half of 2026, worth $8.3 billion in notional volume, with average open interest of 264,600 contracts, or $15.4 billion. Volatility Shares CEO and co-founder Justin Young called the addition "another important step in the continued expansion of CME Group's crypto futures offering," saying it gives clients more ways to "access these assets within a regulated futures framework," while Ripple Prime president Noel Kimmel said institutions managing crypto exposure "need around-the-clock access to regulated derivatives, underpinned by the clearing and financing infrastructure to match." Ripple Prime, built from Ripple's 2025 acquisition of Hidden Road, secured a $200 million lending facility in May to expand its capacity, and Volatility Shares already runs leveraged crypto ETFs tied to several of the same altcoins now listed on CME.