ICO NEWS: XRP FUTURES SET TO DETHRONE ICOS, HOTTEST TREND IN CRYPTO

Crypto Facilities

UK-based startup Crypto Facilities has been operating a futures market for Ripple's XRP cryptocurrency for 18 months now. The coin was developed by blockchain startup Ripple Inc. Tim Schlaefer, the company's CEO, hasn't given much away re the product so far.

However, he says he sees trends in some recent data that suggest XRP futures adoption may be on the horizon. Perhaps now is the notoriously divisive crypto's time to shine in the futures market.

"We have pretty good order books," Schlaefer told CoinDesk, "And we're in the process of working with some of the large market makers to draw that further."

Schlaefer's company had partnered with Ripple and launched XRP futures at a time when Bitcoin was still months away off getting its first Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) regulated Bitcoin derivatives.

It's the second cryptocurrency futures product to be regulated under the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Unsurprisingly, Bitcoin was the first.

Ripple steals the show

Later, when Chicago commodities giants Cboe and CME Group opened their first bitcoin futures in December, Crypto Facilities' own XRP futures were trading $14.2 million in volume a month. And by the time Cboe's first bitcoin futures contract expired in January, Crypto Facilities' XRP futures had almost doubled in volume to $24.6 million.

However, few outside the firm's own pool of investors even knew the futures were being traded, much less with that kind of volume. Now, that appears to be changing with the company on track for another positive month, and others exploring the contracts.

"The liquidity has been growing quite a lot," Schlaefer said, adding: "We have seen our volume growing through February and expect March to set a new record."

Watch this space for the future of XRP futures…