Investing.com – Cryptocurrency prices were mixed on Wednesday as the Bakkt Bitcoin futures launch was delayed.

Bitcoin fell 1.24% to $4,625.90 on the Bitfinex exchange, as of 8:51 AM ET (13:51 GMT), after falling as low as $4,411.00 during a steep decline on Tuesday.

The most recent drop came after several months of stability around the $6,500 range.

Cryptocurrencies overall were higher, with the total coin market capitalization at $150 billion at the time of writing, compared to a high of $145 billion on Tuesday.

Ethereum,or Ether, increased 1.77% to $139.40 and Litecoin was at $34.822, up 3.08%, while XRP lost 3.59% to $0.44696.

Meanwhile, Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, has delayed the opening of its Bitcoin futures product.

The anticipated product, called the Bakkt Bitcoin Daily Futures Contract, will be launched on Jan. 24, 2019, the company said. The new date is still subject to regulatory approval.

The product was scheduled to go live on Dec. 12.

ICE (NYSE:ICE) said in a statement that the delay will give clients more time to start trading.

Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler expanded on the statement in a post on Medium, saying, “as is often true with product launches, there are new processes, risks and mitigants to test and retest, and in the case of crypto, a new asset class to which these resources are being applied. So, it makes sense to adjust our timeline as we work with the industry toward launch.”

Bakkt is backed by a number of big names, including Starbucks (NASDAQ:SBUX) and Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and is the first exchange to be physically settled. Clients will receive Bitcoin at the end of the contract rather than a cash payment.

In comparison, futures at CME and Cboe are settled with cash and based off the price of bitcoin at crypto exchanges.

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