UPDATED 23:05 EDT / SEPTEMBER 23 2019

BLOCKCHAIN

Bakkt bitcoin futures bomb on NYSE debut

Cryptocurrency startup Bakkt LLC, founded by New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc. finally debuted its much-anticipated bitcoin futures offering Sunday with a decidedly underwhelming response.

It its first 24 hours of trading, Bakkt managed to sell only two daily futures contracts and 71 monthly futures contracts. As Coindesk noted today, the first daily contract didn’t even trade until 18 hours after the launch.

The futures contracts, legal agreements to buy or sell bitcoin at a predetermined price at a specified time in the future, debuted on multiple exchanges, including the NYSE, in the belief that mainstream access would make bitcoin futures appealing to institutional investors. It didn’t, much to the disappointment of many in the cryptocurrency community.

Although Bakkt’s bitcoin futures debut was described by some as lackluster, the fact that they were offered — with regulatory approval, which was a long time coming — did please some observers.

One fan was Heath Tarbert, chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, who told CNBC that he believed that “bitcoin and blockchain technology has a lot of promise” and that “I would hate to see a country such as China or another strategic competitor advance further along than us because we don’t have the proper regulatory framework.”

Asked about demand for bitcoin futures contracts, Tarbert added that “the demand is far below other commodity classes … but I think we will see it growing.”

Social media users were not as generous in their take, with several parodying the fact that institutional investors have yet to embrace Bakkt’s bitcoin futures.

Bakkt isn’t the first organization to launch bitcoin futures. Previous efforts have also met with mixed responses. Cboe Global Markets started offering bitcoin futures in December 2017, followed by CME Group later the same month. Cboe subsequently ceased offering bitcoin futures in March because of a lack of demand.

It is early days for Bakkt, making it far too soon to write the product off. And being listed on the NYSE as well as global markets in London and Singapore should, in theory at least, give it potential going forward.

The price of bitcoin dropped on news of the poor uptake of Bakkt bitcoin futures, falling as low as $9,642.52 before recovering slightly to $9,712.70 as of 10:55 EDT. The price is notably below the psychological $10,000 mark that bitcoin has mostly sustained over the last month.

Image: Bakkt

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