Bakkt 1st Day And Why it’s An Eight Lane Superhighway

Bakkt began trading on bitcoin futures on Monday, September 23rd in what is said to be a lukewarm reception. The opening day was not as active as expected. Only 7 bitcoins had traded within the first 2 hours. But as the day went on, pace picked up.

By the time the session closed at 2200hours UTC, two daily futures contract and 71 monthly future contracts had traded on the platform.

Analysts have cited two possible reasons why the slow start is a win for crypto on-ramp.

A Fast 8 Lane Highway

The futures contract are regulated, aside from being insured and settled on bitcoin. The ecosystem itself can work minus the intervention of the dollar or banks for that matter.

Senior analyst at eToro Mati Greenspan spoke to the media about Bakkt asserting that if an ordinary exchange is an on and off-ramps to bitcoin, then the bitcoin futures contract is an eight-lane superhighway. Greenspan also added that you certainly cannot judge how good the highway is based on traffic on an opening day.

It would be expected of traders to avoid taking both long and short positions if it was clear to them that bitcoin was at the edge of a bullish trend or the beginning of a bearish reversal. Leading chart analyst Jacob Canfields affirmed that institutional traders would not enter randomly at mid-range without a proper set-up.

The Inclusion Of Retail Investors

In an interview, Bakkt COO Adam White enlightened how Bakkt would provide an on-ramp for retail investors. It had been earlier reported that Bakkt was working with Starbucks, a retail giant in offering bitcoin payments. The design of the platform had however kept retail investors away from Bakkt.

White told the press that retail investors can now find a way through brokerage firms. He added that aside from the Bakkt been designed for the institutional trader, the platform is a future contract. That being said, futures contracts are expected to trade through retail brokerages. Therefore open for retail contracts as well. And brokerage firms will be there to provide the back door entry of retail investors into Bakkt.

He shared his hopes for Bakkt that it would lead to the price discovery of bitcoin. White acknowledged that the project had been in the making by ICE for over two years. It was only in summer last year when the project was made public.

Crypto Native Platforms

While Bakkt took most of the trading volume attention, native exchanges had their trading volumes as healthy as ever. By the end of the day, CME had traded $100 million in bitcoin contracts. BitMEX on the other had quietly traded about 270,000 BTC worth over $2.7 billion and that’s in the past 24 hours alone. Crypto native platforms should never be underestimated.