The Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is officially launching XRP futures contracts on May 19, introducing institutional-grade derivatives for Ripple’s native token.

The move marks a major expansion of CME’s crypto offering, coming soon after its Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL) futures products.

Breaking Down the New XRP Futures Contracts

According to a notice from April 24, the new offerings will provide traders with cash-settled exposure to XRP’s price movement based on the CME CF XRP-Dollar Reference Rate without requiring actual ownership of the asset.

They also come in two distinct contract sizes to accommodate different trading strategies. The standard XRP futures contract, listed under the ticker code XRP, represents 50,000 tokens with a minimum price fluctuation of $0.0005 per one, equating to $25 per contract.

For traders looking for smaller exposure, the Micro XRP futures contract (MXP) covers 2,500 XRP with the same minimum tick size of $0.0005, translating to $1.25 per contract.

After-hours participants were able to access the contracts from the evening of May 18 on CME Globex and CME ClearPort. Trading hours are set to follow the standard Sunday-to-Friday CME schedule, with a one-hour daily break beginning at 4 pm CT.

Per the CME notice, these contracts will be listed monthly for six consecutive months, and supplemented by four quarterly listings in March, June, September, and December. The minimum threshold for block trades stands at five contracts for standard futures and ten for micro futures, with trades required to be reported within 15-minute windows.

Additionally, fee structures vary significantly depending on participant type. Individual members will enjoy the lowest rates at $4 per standard contract and $0.75 for the micro one, while non-members will have to dig deeper into their pockets, respectively coughing up $7.50 and $1.15 for the standard and micro contracts.

Legal Overhang

The products’ launch comes only days after Judge Analisa Torres denied a joint motion by Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for an indicative ruling on a $50 million settlement they had agreed on that would have ended a years-long legal spat between the two.

The judge, who previously declared that programmatic sales of XRP did not constitute security offerings, stated that it would be “procedurally improper” to approve the motion since neither the regulator nor the crypto payments company filed it correctly.

Meanwhile, despite the bullish implications of institutional adoption, the price of XRP has shown muted movement. At the time of writing, the token had dipped slightly by 1.3% in 24 hours and lost 2.6% across seven days. However, it maintains a 12.1% gain over the past month, suggesting some accumulation in anticipation of the futures rollout.

Bitcoin’s price initiated a sharp upward move on Sunday evening only to have a violent rejection that pushed it south by almost five grand in hours.

Many altcoins have followed suit on the way down, with substantial losses from the likes of SOL, ADA, AVAX, SHIB, and others.

BTC Stopped at $106K

Last Monday was also quite eventful for BTC, whose price went up to almost $106,000 for the first time since late January before it crashed to under $101,000 within hours. However, the bulls managed to maintain the asset within a six-digit price territory and began a recovery that pushed the cryptocurrency back to a tight range between $103,000 and $105,000.

It spent most of the business week between those two boundaries, and the weekend began on a dull note, as most do. However, the landscape changed on Sunday evening when the bulls initiated a surprising rally that drove BTC to $106,000 at first, where it was stopped, but another, even more impressive run pushed it beyond $107,000 to mark a new multi-month peak.

Another rejection followed, and BTC slumped by roughly $5,000 within hours to just over $102,000. It has recovered some ground since then and now sits above $103,000, and its market cap is back to $2.050 trillion.

Its dominance over the alts has surged to almost 61% on CG after falling below 59.5% last week.

Alts Back in Red

Ethereum recently surged past $2,700, but it was stopped and pushed south in the next few days. Now, it trades at $2,400 after a 4.5% daily decline. XRP sits at a critical support level at around $2.3 after a 3% daily drop.

Even more declines come from the likes of SOL, AVAX, SHIB, TAO, KAS, DOT, and many others, with nosedives of up to 6-7%.

WIF has plunged the most from the largest 100 alts, followed by ENA, IMX, JUP, MRK, and others.

The total crypto market cap has slipped by around $70 billion and is down to $3.360 trillion on CG.

Bitcoin (BTC) has arrived at a crossroads after its recent rally past $106,000. Market participants are speculating whether the digital asset will see more momentum to register new highs or retrace a bit to cool off.

A tweet thread by market expert Ali Martinez has outlined factors that could contribute to bitcoin’s surge or correction in the coming days. He believes the cryptocurrency will eventually hit an all-time high, but it remains unclear if the asset will experience a correction first.

Will BTC Surge or Retrace?

According to Martinez, BTC has hit a critical resistance zone around $107,000 after rallying at least 42% in the past month. This region has historically been a turning point for past rallies, as seen in December and January. The analyst insists a daily close above $107,000 will provide the push BTC needs to reach new highs, but until that happens, market participants remain patient.

While the wait continues, the Bitcoin Relative Strength Index (RSI) shows that momentum is stretched, and the asset has climbed into overbought territory since May 15. A surge into this zone has always preceded short-term corrections. This means BTC may be due for a brief retrace, especially with the RSI signalling overbought conditions.

Additionally, BTC whales have been realizing profits. This significant profit taking is evident in this cohort of market participants selling more than 30,000 BTC since May 13. Such levels of profit taking usually increase selling pressure and trigger notable declines in the price of an asset.

Major Support And Resistance Zones

Martinez said BTC could fall to the support zone between $95,850 and $98,730 if selling pressure from investors increases. At least 1.19 million wallets have accumulated more than one million BTC at $98,732, making that level a major demand zone. The asset could see an even deeper correction if BTC falls below this support region.

However, if BTC holds above the support range, the asset could consolidate and amass momentum for its next leg up. From there, $116,900 is the next major target. So, Bitcoin pricing bands show $98,131 and $116,900 as key support and resistance levels for BTC over the following weeks.

Meanwhile, the leading cryptocurrency has been consolidating over the last few days, and was changing hands around $103,000 at the time of writing.