The Solana futures launched by Chicago-based CME Group on Monday had a seemingly underwhelming debut with only $12.3 in trading volume. 

This pales in comparison to the volumes that were recorded by Bitcoin (BTC) and Solana (SOL) futures on their respective debut days ($102.7 million and $31 million). 

The Solana futures logged $7.8 millin in open interest (OI) on their first day of trading. This is not even half compared to what CME's Bitcoin and Etehreum futures recorded during their debut (both products had more than $20 million in open interest). 

However, according to Vetle Lunde of K33 Research, the Solana debut actually aligns with CME's previous cryptocurrency launches considering the market cap difference. 

"Launch day volumes were well below those of the BTC and ETH launches. However, if you normalize volumes to market caps at the launch days, the launch aligns closer to the two," 

According to CoinGlass data, Solana futures OI currently stands at $3.84 billion after recording a 1.79% increase over the past 24 hours. 

Binance accounts for the biggest share of OI (27%) with Bitget (23%) and Gate.io (17.42%) coming in second and third places, respectively. 

CME also had a relatively weak start on the Bitcoin derivatives market, but it has now becom a dominant force. The Chicago-based trading giant accounts for a fourth of of Bitcoin futures OI, surpassing Binance and other crypto-native giants. CME is also one of the biggest players when it comes to   

Even thought CME's Solana futures had a somehow underwhelming start, their launch is still a watershed moment for the sixth-biggest cryptocurrency. It is a crucial step on the way to the eventual approval of Solana ETFs.