Altcoin News: First Bakkt Bitcoin Futures Trade Was Executed

September 23, 2019, by Marko Vidrih on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE

Bitcoin futures of the Bakkt trading platform began to circulate on the own market of the owner of the New York Stock Exchange in accordance with the previously announced plan.

“We’re live! The first Bakkt Bitcoin Futures trade was executed at 8:02pm ET at a price of $10,115,” Bakkt writes on Twitter.

Bakkt Bitcoin futures are now actively traded on the market ICE Futures US, while Bakkt Warehouse continues to accept deposits in Bitcoins.

Bakkt was the first platform to receive permission from the U.S. authorities to service trading in deliverable Bitcoin futures. The company announced its intention to provide participants of the markets regulated at the federal level with the opportunity to work with a tool that will allow them to receive payments in bitcoins more than a year ago, and on August 16 announced the removal of the latest obstacles to launch.

At the time of publication, data on futures with daily settlements are not available, while the volume of trades in monthly futures for several hours from the launch of the instrument amounted to 17 contracts, where one contract corresponds to 1 BTC. At the same time, the amount of Bitcoins transferred to the Bakkt store remains unknown — the company does not disclose the addresses of its wallets.

Image credit: ICE Futures US

CEO of LevelTradingField crypto-derivative exchange Lanre Sarumi expects that it is futures with daily settlements that will cause the main interest of traders:

“The dailies make their offering like the cash market, but with the ability to short. That’s huge.” The contract is “well-designed,” Sarumi added. “The basis to the cash market would be very tight. It’ll be interesting to see if it’s the lead or the follower. In theory the cash market should dictate the price of the derivatives [futures] market. In practice, it’s the other way around for a lot of commodities.”

Bakkt expects to attract the attention of institutional investors, but there is no reason to hope for an instant effect, says TradeBlock Research Director John Tododaro:

“It will take time for these entities to become comfortable with the asset class, identify strategies that are best used to trade the space, understand crypto market liquidity, and also understand the different regulatory and tax obligations across jurisdictions they operate in.”

As noted earlier, the VanEck and SolidX Bitcoin Trust in a few weeks of its existence attracted investments for only four Bitcoins, and trading volumes on the spot and futures crypto markets have recently reached their minimum values ​​for several months.

Todaro believes that the launch of Bakkt Bitcoin futures will contribute to the further development of the cryptocurrency market.

“I would expect, however, that the demand would be somewhat in line with current cash-settled contracts, such as those offered by the CME.”

On the day of the long-awaited start of trading of Bakkt futures, the price of Bitcoin shows relative stability and remains around $10,000.

Author: Marko Vidrih