Bakkt’s Bitcoin cash contracts launched today

Bakkt, the bitcoin futures trading platform of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has announced that it will roll out cash-rounded bitcoin futures and monthly options. The volume of trade at Bakkt has only increased in recent weeks, indicating further institutional involvement.

Bakkt’s Cash-Settled Futures contracts

According to an official report from Adam White, COO at Bakkt, the platform has launched a cash-settled bitcoin futures contract.

Until now, Bakkt only offered physically supplied bitcoin futures. The difference is that users receive real bitcoin at the end of the expiration period and not the fiat equivalent thereof. The latter is the case with cash settled contracts.

The new contract will be available at ICE Futures Singapore. This is an approved exchange with which Asian and international traders can go short and / or long at the price of Bitcoin, without owning the underlying bitcoins.

It is also worth mentioning that these fiat contracts use the settlement price for the physical bitcoin futures contracts.

Bakkt’s regulated monthly bitcoin options

The other product that the platform now supports are monthly bitcoin options. This is the first time that a futures contract on bitcoin has been regulated by the Commodity and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in the US.

The option is settled two days prior to expiration at ICE Futures VS. In addition, price discovery takes place within a federally regulated market and has no exposure to the not yet regulated bitcoin spot market.

The idea behind this is that this should increase Bakkt’s turnover. The volume of trade at Bakkt has been constantly increasing in recent weeks, and for the time being this seems to be coming to an end. The products of the platform are aimed at institutional investors and therefore this may be a signal that the interest of these aprons is only increasing.

For the time being, Bakkt will have to go the extra mile compared to its major competitor CME Group. This is now (even) more popular than Bakkt’s product, at least if you rely on total trade volume.