Bitcoin Trading on ICE’s Bakkt Futures Platform Breaks $290,000 Barrier

by
Bhushan Akolkar
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Earlier today, Bakkt announced the live trading for its much-awaited Bitcoin Futures contracts. Bakkt Bitcoin Futures Contracts come with daily and monthly settlement periods along with its safe custodial solution called the Bakkt Warehouse.

Bakkt Bitcoin Futures are now actively trading on ICE Futures U.S., while the Bakkt Warehouse continues to onboard bitcoin

We take our customers’ trust seriously, and are excited to serve this market

— Bakkt (@Bakkt) September 23, 2019

Bakkt entry to the Bitcoin market has not been a big-bang event as many might have expected! At press time, the Bakkt platform has traded 29 Bitcoin Futures contracts as per the official data with a total traded value over $290,000. According to Bakkt, the first trade execution took place at a BTC price of $10,115 after which Bitcoin slipped to $9938 levels, at press time.

This soft launch of Bakkt has certainly not impressed the Bitcoin investors. However, experts from the crypto industry think that in the coming days, we can see higher institutional inrush. Experts say that we can’t estimate Bakk’ts futures contracts performance on the first day itself.

This is because not all futures brokers are ready to clear the contracts on the first day. Moreover, it takes time for companies to set up their accounts, formulate their trading strategies and thus build volumes.

Expert Opinions on Bakkt Bitcoin Futures Launch

Last week, popular crypto market analyst made some comparison of the Bakkt Bitcoin Futures launch with the CME Bitcoin Futures launch. In a Twitter poll, he asked his followers if Bakkt can manage to make the same impact as the CME.

CME bitcoin futures traded $460 million on its first week. Current volume is around $700 million. The Van Eck fake ETF traded $0 on its first week.

How much volume will Bakkt attract is a key variable for the week ahead. Would you expect Bakkt to flop or to launch successfully?

— Alex Krüger (@krugermacro) September 22, 2019

However, responding to it another crypto investor Ari Paul said that the nature of both these futures contracts is completely different. While CME’s Bitcoin Futures are cash-settled, Bakkt offers physical delivery for its contracts. Paul argues that physical contracts usually see a ‘gradual scale-up’, unlike the cash-settled ones.

Probably a more gradual scale up since it’s physical. With CME futures, anyone with the right FCM could immediately trade on launch.

— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) September 22, 2019

But I’d think the incremental demand (beyond CME) would come from people who want to buy or sell physical for delivery, at least at first. Receiving could be instant (use FCM to convert), but I kind of thinking depositing physical will be gradual.

— Ari Paul ⛓️ (@AriDavidPaul) September 22, 2019

Moreover, if we see the timing of the launch, the Bitcoin trading volumes during December 2017 were much higher in comparison to what they are today. According to data by Messari, the Bitcoin trading volumes today are only $367 million which shows the reason behind low volatility. On the other hand, the data by Blockchain.com shows trading volumes at $1.36 billion. Thus, only when we get a real idea of the Bitcoin price movement, we can get to know the true impact of Bakkt.

Commenting on the matter further, Simon Peters, Analyst at eToro, said:

“The Bakkt launch has already been priced into recent market movements, and we may see some early speculators who bought bitcoin in anticipation of the Bakkt release deciding to cash out their profits, following the popular ‘buy the rumour, sell the news’ maxim”.

He further added:

“For me, it’s price discovery which makes Bakkt an important and much welcome development for the community. As the platform won’t rely on unregulated spot markets for settlement prices, it will serve as a transparent price discovery mechanism to establish a better benchmark price for bitcoin going forward.”