Bakkt, an institutional crypto exchange platform will be testing its first product two days after Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary. Bakkt’s physically delivered Bitcoin futures are listed and traded at ICE Futures U.S. and launches on July 22.
According to Bakk’s astronaut-themed blog post of July 13, Adam White, the company’s COO announced, “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.”
Bakkt will settle its contract in physical bitcoin, unlike traditional platforms that would settle in fiat currencies. The platform had announced that they will support “the ICE Futures U.S. launch of daily and monthly margined futures for bitcoin by bringing regulated custody as part of the futures contract.”
Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) gave more details on the Bakkt futures contract. ICE described it as “a physically settled monthly futures contract for bitcoin held in the Bakkt Unlike traditional platforms, Bakkt will settle its contracts in physical bitcoin, rather than fiat currency.”
According to ICE, the daily and monthly contracts will each contain one bitcoin and both will experience a minimum price fluctuation of $2.50 per bitcoin (with each contract containing one bitcoin). It also states that “Block Trades may be executed at $0.01 per bitcoin ($0.01 per contract).”
In preparation for its launch, the bitcoin futures market had acquired new assets as of January. Bakkt’s CEO Kelly Loeffler had announced that Bakkt acquired some assets from Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), an independent futures commission merchant.
Bakkt’s announcement is coming just days after reports indicated that the showed bitcoin futures from CME Group experienced a record high volume in the month of May. Equally, CBOE, which is the first-ever provider of bitcoin futures, will settle its final contracts this month after which it will stop offering contracts.
The blog post also gave a few details of what to expect from the Bakkt “solution”. The features include “block trades; a fee holiday through the end of the year to encourage trading; market maker incentive programs to encourage liquid markets; and integrations with ISVs and regulated brokerage platforms.”
