XRP Futures Activity Hits $18.3B on CME Despite Limited Price Movement

Ripple’s XRP has been locked in a tight range, trading between $2.70 and $3.00 over the past two months. While the spot price has shown little direction, new derivatives tied to the token are proving far more active. CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives marketplace, reported that its recently launched XRP and Micro XRP futures have gained consistent traction in just four months. Nearly 400,000 contracts have already been traded since listing. The exchange noted that this level of activity reflects strong participation from both institutional investors and retail traders.

397K XRP Contracts Traded in Four Months

CME released fresh performance data to mark the progress of its new contracts. Over the first four months, XRP futures saw about 397,000 contracts change hands, showing that participation has been steady since launch. The total value of those trades reached $18.3 billion, which comes to an average of $213 million a day. When converted to the token itself, that activity was equal to around 6 billion XRP. 

The scale of these numbers shows that the market has built depth in a short time and that both institutions and individual traders are using the contracts actively.

CME Offers Standard and Micro Futures

CME designed the XRP futures in two sizes to meet the needs of different participants. The standard contract represents 50,000 XRP, while the smaller “micro” contract represents 2,500 XRP. Both contracts are quoted in U.S. dollars per XRP, meaning every price change results in a fixed dollar amount depending on the contract size.

The minimum price movement, or tick, is $0.0005 per token. For the standard contract, that tick equals $25. For the micro contract, the same move equals $1.25. This structure allows institutions to take on significant exposure through the larger contracts, while retail traders or smaller firms can participate through the more affordable micro version.

The futures can be traded almost continuously from Sunday evening through Friday evening, with a brief daily break. This schedule provides ample opportunity for participants to enter and exit positions throughout the week.

XRP Options Launch and Market Trends

In a separate update, the exchange announced on September 17 its plan to launch options on XRP and Solana futures starting October 13, 2025. The rollout remains subject to regulatory approval before it can take effect.

In the meantime, XRP has posted modest gains in recent days, rising from around $2.75 to $2.85 over three consecutive sessions, an increase of about 3.6%. In the past 24 hours, the token added slightly more than 2%, showing some short-term upward momentum after weeks of steady consolidation.

Crypto analyst Zach Rector interpreted CME’s trading data as a sign of what may come if more investment vehicles become available. He pointed to the possibility of $5–10 billion in inflows once spot XRP exchange-traded funds are introduced. Rector argued that this level of demand could support a long-term price range between $20 and $30 by 2026.

If XRP were to reach $20–$30, it would represent a substantial increase from current levels. A rise from $2.85 to $20 would be more than 600%, while climbing to $30 would be nearly 950%. These figures illustrate the scale of growth that could occur if significant investment flows into the market, such as through regulated ETF products, building on the early momentum seen in CME’s futures.