06:23 AM EDT, 05/12/2026 (MT Newswires) -- CME Group (CME) will begin offering around-the-clock trading in its cryptocurrency futures later this month, a shift executives and analysts say marks an early step toward bringing digital settlement into mainstream US derivatives markets.

"There's certainly a need and a want for the movement of value over the weekend,"Tim McCourt, CME's global head of equities, FX and alternative products, said in an interview with MT Newswires. Crypto futures have "organic underlying demand"for around-the-clock trading, he said.

Beginning May 29, traders will be able to buy and sell futures on Bitcoin, Ether, Solana and XRP at any hour, including weekends. CME first launched crypto futures in 2017 and has steadily expanded into new coins and digital-asset indexes.

The move mirrors Coinbase Global's (COIN) introduction of 24/7 Bitcoin and Ether futures last year. Both exchanges are now working to integrate digital assets such as stablecoins into their trading and settlement systems. CME is developing its own stablecoin, while Coinbase is in discussions with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to allow USDC to be used as collateral.

Stablecoins can be transferred instantly and at lower cost than bank-to-bank electronic payments. Fedwire, the primary US funds-transfer system, closes on weekends, delaying margin movements and clearing.

CME also plans to test tokenized cash for settlement in a pilot with Alphabet's Google (GOOG, GOOGL) and Bank of Montreal (BMO), part of a broader effort to modernize collateral flows.

While it's early, McCourt said the goal is to "figure out how we can start to use tokenized cash to address some of these needs of the trading community."

Futures markets serve banks, manufacturers, energy companies and farmers by hedging price risk, with speculators providing liquidity. While the market is global, few contracts trade continuously. Crypto markets, by contrast, have operated nonstop since Bitcoin's creation in 2009, and traditional institutions are increasingly adopting the faster settlement models that underpin them.

"CME is pretty sure this is what people are asking for,"said David Easthope, an analyst in market structure and technology at Crisil Coalition Greenwich. "The idea of CME creating their own settlement stablecoin through Google, that's clearly on the roadmap. That's part of this broader futures market that CME is building."

Whether that ultimately leads CME to shift more of its markets to digital settlement is "the trillion-dollar question,"Easthope said.

Coinbase hopes to receive approval to use USDC as collateral by late summer, Boris Ilyevsky, head of US futures at the exchange, said in an interview. The exchange began 24/7 trading of Bitcoin and Ether futures in May 2025 and now sees weekend volumes at roughly a quarter to a third of weekday levels, he said.

Moving to 24/7 trading is a step toward broader adoption of digital settlement in US futures markets, Ilyevsky said. Coinbase is working to expand around-the-clock trading to its gold, silver, crude oil and natural gas futures.

"That's a huge component and ingredient for 24/7 trading -- being able to move collateral on a weekend,"he said. "It will definitely be a better way of running trading systems."

For CME's switch to 24/7, Crisil's Easthope said a concern is how well its electronic trading system, Globex, can handle the change.

"The degree to which it stresses Globex is the biggest challenge,"he said.

CME's McCourt said the company has created a new trading session within Globex to handle the weekend activity and has offered its event contracts for 24/7 trading on Globex since December without issues.

Weekend trading on CME and Coinbase doesn't involve immediate submission to a clearinghouse. Instead, trades are cleared on Monday morning when Fedwire reopens. Brokers also must adhere to trading limits on weekend activity to manage potential losses.

Rob D'Arco, CEO of Rival Systems, a trading and risk-management software company that has supported clients'24/7 trading on Coinbase since last year, said the move to around-the-clock trading, ensuring smooth operations and then moving on to clearing the contracts is the correct approach.

There are still many issues to resolve with 24/7 clearing since Fedwire is used to move margin, D'Arco said.

"I'm glad people aren't jumping to that and are taking a measured approach,"he said.

CME's McCourt said tokenized cash would be used for margin purposes. He declined to speculate on which contracts might next move to 24/7 trading but said crypto has clear demand for continuous access.

D'Arco said real-time risk management is a huge step forward, even if it's limited to a small part of the market for now.

"It's not about just trading more hours, it's about managing risk in real time,"he said. "It allows institutional clients to hedge when the news happens."

-- Matthew Leising, MT Newswires