 
 
CME Group CEO Terry Duffy has revealed that the world’s largest derivatives alternate is actively exploring the potential for launching its personal cryptocurrency.
CME Coin
In response to a query from Morgan Stanley’s Michael Cyprys throughout CME’s This fall earnings name on Wednesday, Duffy confirmed the corporate is exploring “initiatives with our personal coin that we may probably placed on a decentralized community.”
“Not solely are we taking a look at tokenized money […] we’re taking a look at totally different initiatives with our personal coin that we may probably placed on a decentralized community for different of our business individuals to make use of,” he posited.
The comment got here in response to a query in regards to the function of tokenized collateral. In response, Duffy first famous that the derivatives behemoth is meticulously analyzing varied types of margin.
“So in case you had been to provide me a token from a systemically vital monetary establishment, I might in all probability be extra comfy than possibly a 3rd or fourth-tier financial institution making an attempt to situation a token for margin.”
 
CME is already engaged on a tokenized money “initiative” that’s being rolled out with Google later this yr, which can contain a depository financial institution enabling transactions.
The potential CME-issued token operating on a decentralized, public community can be a separate challenge, although the alternate declined to specify how it could operate.
Nonetheless, CEO Duffy’s remarks this week mark the primary time the alternate has explicitly floated the launch of its personal digital token. Nonetheless, a possible debut wouldn’t make CME the primary legacy finance titan to situation its personal token. JPMorgan lately launched tokenized deposits on Coinbase’s Base layer-2 blockchain by way of its JPM Coin.
CME’s 24/7 Buying and selling Push
The revelation comes as CME Group continues to increase its crypto footprint. In January, CME introduced plans to increase its suite of crypto merchandise by itemizing futures contracts tied to Cardano, Stellar, and Chainlink this month for each retail and institutional merchants.
In the meantime, the alternate is set to introduce 24/7 buying and selling for cryptocurrency futures and choices starting within the second quarter of 2026, pending regulatory approval. The transfer goals to align CME’s merchandise extra intently with around-the-clock digital asset markets.
