After over a year of delays, Bakkt Bitcoin Futures exchange has finally seen its official launch only a few hours ago. Futures contracts are also actively trading on ICE Futures U.S.

Bakkt Bitcoin Futures exchange is finally live, according to recent updates, with the first BTC Futures trade being executed at 8:02 pm ET, at a price of $10,115.

Bakkt’s Long Windy Road

It has been over a year since the announcement of Bakkt, ICE’s official Bitcoin Futures exchange. After numerous regulatory issues, delays, and other difficulties, the exchange is finally live.

Furthermore, it announced that Bakkt Bitcoin Futures are actively trading on ICE Futures U.S. At the same time, Bakkt Warehouse is continuously onboarding Bitcoin. The exchange also shared that it is excited about finally being able to serve the market, and for now, it appears that there are no issues or difficulties on the technical side of things.

Bakkt is a Bitcoin Futures exchange and a digital assets platform that was founded by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) back in 2018. As many also know, ICE is also a parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), a highly-influential and trusted firm. It may serve as the first company that will successfully create a bridge between the traditional finances industry and Bitcoin.

Bakkt was originally meant to launch Bakkt back in 2018. However, the volume of interest, work, and regulatory issues delayed the launch several times. Bakkt finally got to start testing its platform in July of this year, and today, Sept 23, 2019, is when the platform saw its official launch.

Many believe that the way things had occurred made the situation even better since 2019 brought a major shift in institutional investors’ sentiment towards cryptocurrencies. After surviving a year-long bear market, the cryptocurrency market has again proved its legitimacy in the eyes of major companies and investors. This has caused many to start considering participation in the digital currency industry.

What About Bitcoin?

As many in the cryptocurrency industry are undoubtedly aware, there was a lot of speculation on whether or not Bakkt’s launch would impact Bitcoin in any significant way. The topic was followed by a lot of skepticism as the launch of the exchange approached, with most people expecting that it will not change anything for Bitcoin or its price.

At the time of writing, that does appear to be the case. Bitcoin has seen unnatural stability in the past few weeks. At the time of writing, the largest cryptocurrency has a price of exactly $10,000 per coin, after growing by 0.58% in the last 24 hours.

Scammers Have Arrived

Bakkt also saw an increased amount of Twitter scams. Bad actors were posing as the exchange, and leaving links while trying to copy the account’s look. The exchange warned that users should look for Bakkt’s official Twitter handle, @Bakkt, before trusting the posts and opening any links.

The exchange also pointed out that it will never use social media for asking for any sensitive information, giveaways, or publish their wallet address to ask for deposits. Any such offers or requests are to be ignored and reported to the platform.

How do you feel about Bakkt finally seeing the launch? Do you expect a major shift in Bitcoin’s price to follow? Tell us your thoughts in the comments below.

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