ICE Goes Live With Futures Tied to CoinDesk Indices
Watch on YouTube ↗  |  February 12, 2026 at 16:20 UTC  |  8:21  |  CoinDesk
Speakers
Jennifer Ilq — President, ICE Futures US
Sam Ewen — Head of Media, CoinDesk

Summary

  • ICE Futures US is re-entering the crypto derivatives market (after a pullback post-2018) by launching futures contracts on Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, BNB, and Ripple, as well as the CoinDesk 5 and CoinDesk 20 indices.
  • The strategic pivot is driven by regulatory clarity (specifically the "Genius Act" and "Clarity Act") which has emboldened US banks to offer crypto futures to clients.
  • ICE is pursuing a "convergence" thesis where traditional finance (TradFi) and crypto market structure merge, evidenced by their investment in Polymarket and initiatives to tokenize securities on the NYSE for immediate settlement.
Trade Ideas
Ticker Direction Speaker Thesis Time
SOL /BTC /ETH /BNB /XRP
LONG Jennifer Ilq
President, ICE Futures US
ICE is launching single-token futures contracts specifically for Bitcoin, Ether, Solana, BNB, and Ripple. Institutional capital (pensions, endowments) requires regulated infrastructure to enter an asset class. By listing these specific five assets on a regulated US exchange (ICE), they are effectively "whitelisted" for institutional portfolios. This creates a structural bid as these assets graduate from "speculative retail" to "institutional investable." LONG the underlying assets as liquidity deepens and spreads tighten due to institutional hedging capabilities. Regulatory reversal or lack of volume in the futures contracts leading to delisting. 0:55
WATCH Jennifer Ilq
President, ICE Futures US
ICE has made a strategic investment in Polymarket and established a data relationship to distribute Polymarket's sentiment data through ICE's data services. This legitimizes prediction markets as a source of high-quality financial data. While Polymarket is private, this partnership signals that "event contracts" are moving into the institutional mainstream, potentially leading to future investable products or a valuation uplift for the platform. WATCH for future equity opportunities or related tokens in the prediction market sector. Regulatory crackdowns on prediction markets in the US.
LONG Jennifer Ilq
President, ICE Futures US
ICE is launching futures on the CoinDesk 5 and CoinDesk 20 indices. ProShares and Grayscale have products tied to these indices. Institutions prefer diversified exposure (similar to MSCI Emerging Markets) over single-stock picking. The creation of futures on these indices allows institutions to hedge broad crypto exposure, facilitating the creation of larger, more liquid ETFs (like the mentioned ProShares/Grayscale products). LONG the index products (or proxies like BITW/Grayscale funds) as they become the default vehicle for passive institutional allocation. Correlation breakdown among index components. 2:26
ICE
LONG Jennifer Ilq
President, ICE Futures US
ICE is integrating crypto across its business lines: launching futures, investing in Polymarket for data, and developing tokenized securities with the NYSE. As the "Genius Act" and "Clarity Act" drive banks into crypto, they will prioritize "compliant innovation" over offshore exchanges. ICE is positioning itself as the primary infrastructure rail for this migration, capturing volume from TradFi institutions entering the digital asset space. LONG ICE as a "pick-and-shovel" play on institutional crypto adoption. Competition from CME or crypto-native exchanges gaining regulatory approval. 0:17