By
Steve Muchoki
April 17th, 2024
As ICE Futures Exchange opens its Bitcoin Futures interest, CME concurrently soars in what appears to be a four day all-time high in a row.
As we reported earlier, ICE finally announced the launch date for Bakkt’s Bitcoin futures beta-testing.
The US fortune 500 company Intercontinental Exchange – ICE, first disclosed it’s involvement with the number one cryptocurrency, Bitcoin in August 2018. Following several months of its Bitcoin derivative trading venture been subject to regulatory setbacks. In tune with recent news update, the company is well on its way to setting its Bitcoin trading platform in motion along with a cryptocurrency payment processing mechanism know as Bakkt Pay.
However, it’s not the first case of Bitcoin futures adoption by institutional options and exchange platforms: Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), as well as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), initiated their BTC futures trading instrument in late 2017. CME, by the way, experienced a four days stretch 25% increase over the span of a week.
CME Bitcoin futures open interest reaches a record for a fourth consecutive day, with 5,827 contracts traded on June 20 (29,135 equivalent bitcoin; ~$280M notional) and a 25% increase from last Friday. https://t.co/8oyxgNLJWu pic.twitter.com/oUQNyiktAA
— CME Group (@CMEGroup) June 21, 2019
ICE’s affiliate cryptocurrency platform – Bakkt, would expose a wider range of traditional financial institution to the spheres of blockchain trading systems. The smart contract would be physically settled delivering Bitcoin to the Bakkt custody warehouse when the contracts expire. This is in juxtaposition to its CME and CBOE pairs whose cryptocurrency futures products are cash-settled.
According to a Medium report in November 2018 by Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler, given the volume of interest in Bakkt, this Bitcoin trading futures feature on the platform would undergo a series of testing phases.
She further accentuated on this saying:
“With product launches, there are new processes, risks and mitigants to test and re-test, and in the case of crypto, a new asset class to which these resources are being applied. So it makes sense to adjust our timeline as we work with the industry toward launch.”
ICE is a futures and options trading multinational company that owns and regulates 12 exchanges and marketplaces for the commodity and financial market on a global scale. Including futures exchanges in the United States, Canada and Europe, London’s Liffe futures exchanges in Europe, the New York Stock Exchange, equity options exchanges and OTC energy as well as credit and equity markets.
Bakkt Bitcoin daily futures contract and the products it fraught with would betoken a critical shift in revolutionizing the crypto ecosystem as it would provide access, utility along with regulated financial instruments to traditional investors globally.
Bakkt is set to kick start its user acceptance beta-testing on the 22nd of July.
“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 COO – Adam White confirmed.