It took Bakkt months of delays and regulations to finally launch its crypto custody warehouse. While everyone thought it would have an explosive volume of contracts, it did not rise to our expectations. However, there is a good reason for Bakkt to start slowly and then see a huge volume, explain analysists.
Bakkt has just opened its futures contracts, and while the first hours were a bit slow, in less than 24 hours, it saw 63 BTC enter into monthly contracts on the platform. In USD, 63 BTS is over $600,000.
After it was launched at 12:00 UTC, the first Bakkt/ICE futures contract was at $10,115, and after the first hour, only 5 contracts were added. However, in 10 hours, the number of contracts grew to 28 (only one of them was under $10,000).
Bakkt to Be “First a Trickle and then a Flood”
CEO of LevelTradingField, Lanre Sarumi, couldn’t believe the volume was that low:
“I’m shocked there isn’t any volume. I absolutely thought that contract was going to fly out of the gate. Very odd.”
However, Su Zhu, the hedge fund Three Arrows Capital CEO and CIO believed that this was a natural reaction. In a Twitter post, he explains that most regulated futures contracts have a low adoption on the first day from the launch:
“Bakkt will be likely first a trickle and then a flood.
The reality is that most regulated futures contracts get low adoption on day one simply because not all futures brokers are ready to clear it, many people want to wait and see, the tickers are not even populated on risk systems, etc.”
Analyst Joseph Young agrees with Su Zhu, adding that volumes will indeed rise as soon as brokers “get ready”:
Bakkt isn't showing a whole lot of bitcoin volume on its first day of trading, no fireworks as many expected.
But, Bakkt actually launching before the year's end sets a good precedent entering 2020. As brokers get ready, it will likely see more volume. pic.twitter.com/jRoZJRwVXh
— Joseph Young (@iamjosephyoung) September 23, 2019
Bakkt also warned that it would take weeks or months for investors to start getting interested in betting on BTC. When contracts expire, investors will receive their payment in Bitcoin, unlike CME, which settles futures contracts in cash.
However, Bakkt using Bitcoin as payment will raise the demand of the popular cryptocurrency and place upward pressure on the price in the future.
