It’s been a long year, with investors knowing that Bakkt was in the works, but not knowing much more about how Loeffler, Sprecher and crew intended to launch the futures program.
“One year ago, we announced our ambitious vision to bring institutional infrastructure to digital assets with an end-to-end regulated marketplace,” wrote Kelly Loeffler Friday in a Medium Piece entitled Cleared to Launch. “That vision will be realized on September 23 when Bakkt launches custody and physically-delivered daily and monthly bitcoin futures contracts in partnership with ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Clear US.”
Now there’s a date, September 23, and Loeffler says the system is good to go.
“Our contracts have already received the green light from the CFTC through the self-certification process and user acceptance testing has begun,” she writes, noting preceding activity to add visibility before the launch.
Unlike some other exchange options, these Bitcoin futures will be physically delivered, with prices not based on unregulated spot pricing.
Rumor of this type of financial option has had traders’ attention.
“Bakkt’s physically delivered futures have been the subject of a great deal of anticipation, with the company initially announcing its launch August 2018 before being subject to repeated delays over compliance issues,” writes Kollen Post at Cointelegraph Friday. “Satisfying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has proven particularly challenging. The company began testing in earnest on July 22, as Cointelegraph reported at the time.”
Let’s look at more of the philosophy behind Bakkt, again, from Loeffler:
“Digital asset markets are global and well-developed, but they have largely been designed to serve retail customers rather than institutional participants. Bakkt is bridging that gap to access this market and solve for factors that have slowed institutional participation. Whether concerns relate to a lack of liquidity, market quality and regulation, or issues with reliability, fees, and operational risks, we are addressing these challenges with a transparent offering.”
Institutional buy-in is a big factor in future crypto values – so this resonates with a good number of BTC or other coin holders. Watch this space as Bakkt gets closer to actual implementation.
