CME Group Considers Launching Own Coin as It Expands Crypto Trading Hours

CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange operator by trading volume, is actively considering launching its own digital coin and transitioning its crypto products to 24/7 trading, executives said during the company’s fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday.

Chairman and CEO Terrence Duffy made the remarks while responding to a question from Morgan Stanley analyst Michael Cyprys regarding the potential use of stablecoins, tokenized deposit tokens, or tokenized funds as collateral within CME’s markets.

Duffy said CME is rolling out a tokenized cash initiative in partnership with Google later this year. The collaboration, first announced in March 2025, aims to enable secure wholesale payments and asset tokenization using distributed ledger technology.

“So not only are we looking at tokenized cash, obviously, we’re looking at different initiatives with our own coin that we could potentially put on a decentralized network for other of our industry participants to use,” Duffy said. “There’s multiple different ways that we’re approaching this to create efficiencies for our clients going forward, without introducing any additional risk to the system.”

Public Blockchain Approach Sets CME Apart

CME’s consideration of issuing a coin on a decentralized, public network would distinguish it from several Wall Street peers that have pursued tokenization through closed systems.

Citigroup, which has said tokenization could be a major driver of future financial infrastructure, has followed a similar path to JPMorgan by using proprietary tokens on private networks to accelerate settlement for institutional clients.

By contrast, CME’s comments suggest openness to broader interoperability with external market participants, though no formal timeline or design details were disclosed.

24/7 Crypto Trading Plans Reaffirmed

CME’s exploration of around-the-clock crypto trading is not new. The exchange operator has previously indicated plans to extend trading hours for its cryptocurrency futures and options products.

In October 2025, CME said it expected its crypto derivatives to begin trading 24 hours a day, seven days a week in early 2026, subject to regulatory approval. At the time, the firm was preparing to launch futures tied to XRP and Solana.

Since then, CME has expanded its crypto product lineup to include futures linked to Chainlink, Cardano, and Stellar.

Crypto Volumes Hit Record Levels

CME also reported record cryptocurrency trading activity in 2025. Average daily volume rose 92% year over year in the fourth quarter, reaching more than $13 billion in notional value traded per day.

The growth underscores increasing institutional engagement with crypto-linked derivatives, even as exchanges and regulators continue to evaluate how tokenized assets and blockchain-based settlement may integrate with traditional market infrastructure.