Digital asset prime broker FalconX said Saturday it has completed the “first-ever” block trade for CME Group's Solana futures with StoneX as counterparty, a day ahead of the SOL futures launch of new contracts expected on March 17.
The San Mateo, California headquartered broker executed the transaction with the goal of providing a way "to manage risk and price exposure on a regulated venue," Josh Barkhordar, head of U.S. sales at the firm said in a The following is a statement by the spokesperson.
In this context, a block trade is a private, large volume transaction of futures contract, which takes place off the open market, to avoid the disruption in the asset price.
CME Group Debuted the Solana futures contract in late February to meet "increasing client demand," as it vies to position the offering as a precursor and "primary pre-requisite" to a SOL ETF.
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has received applications from several asset management firms to introduce Solana ETFs.
Franklin Templeton has filed a document in February 2025, but they manage over $1.5 trillion worth of assets. Grayscale, 21Shares Bitwise VanEck Canary Capital and Canary Capital are among the other firms that have filed spot Solana-based ETFs.
Solana’s futures follows the Bitcoin and Ethereum pattern, in which futures trading was done before ETFs were approved and authorized by a regulator.
Standard contracts represent 500 SOL, and Micro contracts represent 25 SOL.
The futures are then cash-settled based on the CME CF Solana-Dollar Reference Rate, calculated daily at 4:00 p.m. London time, providing a standardized benchmark for SOL's U.S. dollar price.
FalconX operates as a key liquidity provider for CME Group's crypto derivatives suite. It is reported that the company has executed over $1.5 trillion worth of trading volumes across 400 tokens, for over 600 institutions.
The firm has pursued strategic expansion in institutional crypto markets, acquiring derivatives platform Arbelos Markets in January 2025 and partnering with liquidity and data solutions provider TP ICAP's Fusion Digital Assets in February last year.
CME claims to have seen a substantial increase in its market for crypto derivatives, with an average volume per day reaching 202,000 contract early 2025. That’s a year-on-year growth of 73%.
Its crypto-products are traded by more than 11,300 distinct accounts, and the average interest in contracts is up 55% from last year.
On central crypto exchanges Solana derivatives have a volume growth of 66% to $7.24billion, indicating a bullish trend with long/short multiple ratios exceeding 2, even though there were liquidations worth $12.29mil in 24 hours. The following are some of the most effective ways to increase your ROI: Coinglass Shows
CoinGecko shows that Solana, which is currently down 6.4% at $127, continues to be under pressure, despite its recent highs near $293.31.
Sebastian Sinclair is the editor
