Chicago-based derivatives exchange CME Group will launch futures contracts for Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK) and Stellar (XLM) on Feb. 9 to expand the cryptocurrency market, Cointelegraph reported on Wednesday.

The new contracts add to those for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Solana (SOL) and are regulated by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). CME Group said it is introducing altcoin futures as market participants' interest in digital assets increases.

CME plans to offer standard and micro futures contracts for each altcoin, with position sizes set at 10,000 to 100,000 ADA, 250 to 5,000 LINK, and 12,500 to 250,000 XLM.

Investors can respond to price changes or hedge risk without holding the underlying assets. Cointelegraph said the introduction of micro contracts is seen as a move aimed at small investors.

Martin Franchi, CEO of U.S.-based retail futures trading platform NinjaTrader, said, "As digital assets become integrated into investment portfolios, we have reached a global inflection point," and added, "These new contracts reflect rising demand among retail investors for regulated cryptocurrency futures."

CME Group recently worked with Nasdaq Stock Market to integrate cryptocurrency benchmarks and rebranded the Nasdaq Crypto Index as the Nasdaq-CME Crypto Index. The index tracks the prices of Bitcoin, Ethereum, Ripple, Solana, Chainlink, Cardano and Avalanche (AVAX).