(BlockBar) On June 13，Bakkt COO Adam White, a crypto asset trading platform run by ICE -Intercontinental Exchange, said in a blog post on Medium that the long-awaited Bakkt bitcoin futures product will begin testing on July 22. White said in a blog post, “On July 22, two days after Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary, Bakkt will initiate user acceptance testing for its bitcoin futures listed and traded at ICE Futures U.S. and cleared at ICE Clear US.”
For the significance of the launch of the bitcoin futures product, White said “This is no small step. This launch will usher in a new standard for accessing crypto markets. Compared to other markets, institutional participation in crypto remains constrained due to limitations like market infrastructure and regulatory certainty. This results in lower trading volumes, liquidity, and price transparency than more established markets like ICE’s Brent Crude futures contract, which has earned global trust in setting the world’s price of crude oil.。”
The bitcoin futures Bakkt is about to launch are actually delivered in bitcoin, which is very different from those traded on the Cboe GlobalMarkets and CMEGroup. Both Cboe and Cbot Bitcoin futures are settled in cash, and investors don’t receive actual bitcoins during the entire process. Bakkt’s bitcoin futures are settled in actual bitcoins. Futures traded in actual bitcoin would certainly increase the currency’s liquidity. At that point, the encryption market will be fully “activated”. The plan was supposed to be launched by the end of 2018, but it has been stymied by regulatory barriers.
According to White, Bakkt’s solution will solve bottleneck in other parts of the emerging cryptocurrency market.
For example, the company is seeking to become a qualified custodian (through a trust licence) with $100m of insurance coverage to assure concerns about the storage of digital assets linked to its products.
In the end, as stated by White，“Bakkt may be a form of moonshot, but it’s grounded in an earthbound endeavor to support the future of finance and the adoption of blockchain technology. In its own way, Bakkt’s efforts to help institutions launch safely into this market is the right stuff for the future.”
In early August 2018, ICE, the parent company of the New York stock exchange (NYSE), joined forces with Microsoft, starbucks, BCG and others to launch Bakket. A crypto asset trading platform aims to enable consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and use digital assets on a seamless global network. What’s more, Bakkt will provide the first federally regulated physical delivery price contract for digital money markets.
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