Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) and CME Group both operate financial-market infrastructure: they run trading venues, provide clearing, and sell market information. Their reported FY2025 revenue shows the clearest portfolio distinction: ICE reports three substantial segments, including Mortgage Technology, while CME Group reports most revenue as clearing and transaction fees. Because the companies classify revenue differently, their totals and categories are not a like-for-like measure of business quality or investment merit.
How ICE and CME Group make money
Both companies connect market participants through exchanges and related services. Trading venues support transactions in financial products; clearing helps manage and settle trades; and market data and information services generate revenue from pricing, analytics, connectivity, and other market-related products.
The overlap is real, but their business descriptions and financial reporting do not divide activity into matching buckets. ICE reports both operating segments and a separate recurring-versus-transaction revenue split. CME Group’s FY2025 results instead identify clearing and transaction fees, market data and information services, and other revenue.
ICE’s FY2025 revenue mix
For the year ended December 31, 2025, ICE reported consolidated revenue of $9.931 billion. Its three reported segments were:
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| ICE reported segment | FY2025 revenue | What it represents |
|---|---|---|
| Exchanges | $5.411 billion | Exchange activity and related services, including transaction-sensitive revenue as well as data, connectivity, and listings. |
| Fixed Income and Data Services | $2.419 billion | Fixed-income data and related execution, clearing, and analytics businesses. |
| Mortgage Technology | $2.101 billion | Mortgage-related technology and workflow products. |
ICE also reported $5.056 billion in recurring revenue and $4.875 billion in transaction revenue for FY2025. That is a different view from the three-segment table: the segment labels describe parts of the business, while recurring and transaction revenue describe revenue characteristics across the company. ICE’s portfolio therefore combines exchange activity with data and network services and a mortgage-technology business.
CME Group’s FY2025 revenue mix and market footprint
CME Group reported FY2025 revenue of $6.5206 billion. Its reported categories were:
| CME Group reported category | FY2025 revenue |
|---|---|
| Clearing and transaction fees | $5.2811 billion |
| Market data and information services | $803.1 million |
| Other revenue | $436.4 million |
CME describes its marketplace as spanning futures, options, cash, and over-the-counter markets. Its infrastructure includes CME Globex for futures and options, BrokerTec for fixed-income trading, EBS for foreign exchange, and CME Clearing. The company’s exchange structure includes CME, CBOT, NYMEX, and COMEX.
The $5.2811 billion clearing-and-transaction-fees line is CME’s largest reported category, making its revenue presentation visibly centered on trading and clearing fees. Market data and information services are also a meaningful revenue stream, but CME’s cited FY2025 results do not provide a recurring-versus-transaction split equivalent to ICE’s.
Rank #3
Key differences—and what the figures do not show
- Reported portfolio breadth: ICE presents three sizeable segments, including Mortgage Technology. CME’s reported categories emphasize clearing and transaction fees, alongside data and other revenue. These are company-defined categories, not parallel segment maps.
- Data exposure: Both companies monetize market information. ICE includes data and related services within its Fixed Income and Data Services segment and also earns data, connectivity, and listing revenue in Exchanges. CME reports market data and information services as a separate revenue category.
- Recurring revenue: ICE’s $5.056 billion FY2025 recurring-revenue figure is not directly comparable with CME’s $803.1 million market-data-and-information-services figure. The first is ICE’s recurring-revenue classification; the second is one of CME’s reported revenue categories.
- Activity and volume: CME Group reported average daily volume of 28.1 million contracts in FY2025, up 6% from 2024. This measures CME futures and options activity; it is not revenue, and the information available here does not include a matched ICE activity measure for a direct volume comparison.
- Revenue totals: ICE’s $9.931 billion and CME Group’s $6.5206 billion are reported FY2025 totals, but different revenue classifications and business mixes mean the totals alone do not establish which business is better or more attractive as an investment.
How to make a useful comparison
Start with the question you are trying to answer, then compare measures defined on the same basis:
Quick Recap
Best Value
- For portfolio mix, compare company-reported segments or revenue categories, while keeping their labels and boundaries visible. ICE’s segments and CME’s fee/data/other categories are not equivalent classifications.
- For recurring exposure, use a recurring-revenue measure for both companies only if both disclose one on a comparable basis. ICE reports such a figure; CME’s cited FY2025 release does not give an equivalent split.
- For market scope, compare the products and infrastructure each company operates: exchanges, clearing, data services, fixed-income and FX platforms, and mortgage workflows where applicable.
- For activity, match definitions, products, and periods before comparing volume. CME’s average daily contracts figure should not be ranked against an unmatched ICE measure.
- For financial performance or investment analysis, use additional comparable measures and valuation context rather than treating nominal revenue totals as a verdict.
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