Bakkt Achieves a New ATH With 363 BTC on its 1st Monthiversary Amidst Bitcoin Price Drop
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Bakkt, the Bitcoin Futures Exchange and digital assets platform from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the creator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is a month- old now. Today, as it turned 1-month old, the platform achieved a new all-time high (ATH) of 360 BTC on its Bitcoin Monthly Futures Contracts. The number as it expected to increase before the close of the day. 

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 Bakkt Hits a New ATH with 360 BTC

Bakkt celebrated its first monthiversary by achieving a new ATH of 363 BTC on its Bitcoin Monthly Futures. This number may grow further before the close of the day. According to a Twitter handle, Bakkt Volume Bot, the forecast for today’s volume is 1139 BTC.

Source: Twitter

The news coincides with BTC price plummeting to $7.5K. However, the fact that the numbers on Bakkt have improved spell a ray of hope for the future of the platform which had been branded as a flop show by the crypto community owing to its dismal performance at launch.

What are Bakkt Bitcoin Futures? 

In the case of Bakkt’s bitcoin futures, the futures contracts are physically settled. Bakkt offers physical delivery of assets for futures contracts, but Bitcoin remains in their custody service, Bakkt warehouse instead of in the possession of the investor in a wallet. 

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This is a physically-settled daily futures contract for bitcoin held in the Bakkt Warehouse with the Trading Screen Product Name “Bakkt BTC (USD) Daily Future” and Trading Screen Hub Name “ICUS”. The commodity code is BTC and the contract size is 1 BTC. The minimum price fluctuation set is $2.50 per bitcoin or contract, and block trades may be executed at $0.01. There is no daily price limit for these contracts.

The Initial Phase 

During the initial phase Bakkt we can say that Bakkt did not live up to the hype and set off to a really slow start. On the first day, the total trading volume on the platform was  71 Bitcoin (BTC) futures. The Oct ‘19 Bakkt Monthly Bitcoin Future settled at $9875, and the Bakkt Daily Bitcoin Future settled at $9790. The second-day continued to have the same plight with a minor change of 0.704%. Further, trade volume was recorded to be 4 Bitcoins. 

Source- Bakkt Official Site

ICE revealed on the 4th of October that the first Bakkt Bitcoin Futures block trade was executed between digital assets merchant bank Galaxy Digital and crypto investment firm XBTO on Oct. 

Steve Grasso, the director of institutional sales at Stuart Frankel & Co. Inc.then said that this product will provide more confidence to cryptocurrency traders. Also, it will “give credence to the whole Bitcoin story.”

While a sense of positive sentiment prevailed, crypto Twitter left no stone unturned to troll Bakkt.  Larry Cermak, a leading lawyer, and research analyst said that Bitcoin doesn’t require Bakkt but Bakkt requires Bitcoin.

Source- Twitter

DonAlt compared the Bakkt launch to a donut shop without any customers on its first day. As a solid rebuttal, Mati Greenspan, the Senior Market Analyst at eToro then said

If a regular exchange is the on and off-ramps to bitcoin, this is an eight-lane superhighway. You certainly aren’t going to judge how good the highway is based on how much traffic it has on opening day.”

However, the platform is yet to show that it is worth its salt as daily trading volume continues to be low.

Bakkt Gains Momentum

Before today, the 9th of October saw a surge in the trading volume of Bitcoin and the platform soared to 224 contracts.  

Source- Bakkt Bot

In early October, Binance Research, the exchange’s analytics arm, identified the sluggish volumes in Bakkt’s early days as a contributing factor to BTC/USD plummeting from near $10,000 to under $8,000.

Bakkt and CME

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) in conjunction with their Bitcoin futures platform Bakkt is reportedly seeking to jump ahead of the CME group to release a Bitcoin options contract.

The first day of Bakkt’s Bitcoin futures saw less than 2 percent of the CME’s debut day trading volume, prompting speculation over whether the highly anticipated contract will deliver on its mission of being.

Bakkt Bitcoin futures saw only a mere 2% of CME’s trading volume.

In August, CME traded an average daily volume of 7,237 contracts, or 36,185 BTC.

This suggests that it wants to beat its CME rival that is considering a Q1 2020 launch for its Bitcoin option contract.The CME group recently announced its decisions to launch its Bitcoin options contracts. ICE is also likely to roll out Bitcoin Options soon. 

Will Bakkt live up to to the comments of critiques or supporters? Let us know, what you think in the comments below!

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Bakkt Achieves a New ATH with 363 BTC on its 1st Monthiversary Amidst Bitcoin Price Drop
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Bakkt, the Bitcoin Futures Exchange and digital assets platform from Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the creator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) is a month- old now. The platform's progress has picked up since its initial phase, however, the same has not lived up-to the claims and hype which surrounded it. The exchange has a long road to travel before it can match up to the Chicago Mercantile Exchange(CME) and even other unregulated platforms
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Author: Supriya Saxena

Coming from a physics background the unpredictability and intrigue of the cryptoverse attracted me to take a dive in this field. I am all eyes and ears for the latest trends in blockchain and crypto sphere. Whenever I am not writing or researching, I love to read sci-fi novels, play basketball and watch action movies. I strongly believe that blockchain and cryptocurrency will bring lasting transformations in people’s lives in the years to come. You can reach out to me at supriya [at] coingape.com.



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