Bakkt postponed the Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts announced by the company for December 12th to January 24th, 2019, as reported by the US brokerage Intercontinental Exchange, also known as ICE. The company, an alliance between Microsoft, Starbucks and the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), said through its CEO that over the past few months they have worked on their product, which has resulted in “critical new features to support our offer, so I wanted to provide an update on what is in flight.
“Given the volume of interest in Bakkt and the work required to put all the parts in place, we will now have our sights set on January 24th, 2019, for our launch to ensure that our participants are ready to trade on Day 1. As is often the case with product launches, there are new processes, risks and mitigating factors to test and retest, and in the case of cryptocurrency, a new asset class to which these resources apply,
” said Kelly Loeffler, Bakkt CEO.
Among the announcements made by the company, it can also be mentioned that it is considering adding new contracts linked to other cryptocurrencies, although for that they will wait for the evolution of the crypto market and the opinion of their customers. In addition to that, they would offer services related to cryptos that will also include insurance for the cold storage of Bitcoin (BTC).
Bitcoin (BTC) Futures Contracts Postponed By Bakkt Until January 24th, 2019
For its part, ICE said in its statement that “will list the new daily Bitcoin (BTC) futures contract for negotiation on Thursday, January, 24th, 2019, as a subject to approval by the regulator.” In this regard, the brokerage firm explained that the contracts would be 1 BTC in exchange for US dollars.
On August 7th, news portal announced that the ICE Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts, through Bakkt, would be the first such instruments settled in BTC in the United States and that they will be delivered to the conventional asset market. That makes a difference to the other Bitcoin (BTC) products offered by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and the Chicago Board Options Exchange (Cboe), which liquidate BTC futures in cash.
At this point, it is important to mention that the regulatory body related to these contracts is the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). In October of this year, they announced that, on December 12th, the trading of these Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts would begin with a daily monetary exchange after the close of the market.
