The long-awaited launch of Bakkt, Bitcoin Futures Trading Platforms on the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) finally took place. After more than a year of waiting, Bakkt opened for trading today, September 23rd. However, trading volume is particularly low at the moment, and the community is wondering if all the hype will be justified.
Bakkt begins to trade with a minimum volume
BAKKT Markets , as the official conference venue, is open to trade. According to the official website, the platform brings regulated pricing information to the Bitcoin market. It also uses the same technology that powers the global markets ICE, which also owns the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE).
Now, one of the key differences between Bakkt and other existing Bitcoin futures trading platforms is that contracts are physically concluded. This means that instead of receiving a cash equivalent at the expiration of the contract, traders receive real bitcoin. In theory, this should contribute to better price disclosure and increased market liquidity.
However, up to this point, only 27 contracts were traded on the platform, which is probably quite low. Of course, this is also the first day of the platform since it was launched just a few hours ago.
Bakkt is seen as a gateway for institutional investors to the Bitcoin market, mainly due to regulated warehousing and supposedly improved pricing. The company reportedly received a license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) to hold funds for its users.
Bitcoin price remains unchanged
Despite being one of the most exciting days for the cryptocurrency community today, Bitcoin's price has remained relatively unchanged. BTC is down 0,5% in the past 24 hours and is currently trading slightly below the $ 10000 major level.
At the time of this writing Bitcoin traded at $ 9 and has a total market capitalization of approximately $ 988 billion. Bitcoin dominance is 179%, down 68% from last week. This means that altcoins are trying to break out and regain their former strength. However, the altcoin market is also bleeding out today as most cryptocurrencies are trading in the red.
In any case, it’s still very interesting to see how the situation as a whole will develop and whether Bakkt really will attract more institutional interests in this area, since this seems to be what most people believe.