ICE's Bakkt Begins Testing Its Bitcoin Futures Contracts, Launch Likely This Quarter Ahead

As per the earlier schedule, ICE’s Bakkt platform begins testing its Bitcoin Futures contracts on Monday, July 22. It’s been almost a year that ICE announced the Bakkt platform to bring cryptocurrency usage in daily life while simultaneously attracting institutional players to the crypto space.

From its official Twitter account, Bakkt announced: “Today kicks off user acceptance testing @ICE_Markets for the Bakkt Bitcoin Daily & Monthly Futures contracts Testing is proceeding as planned with participants from around the world. Bakkt is bringing trust to digital assets through institutional grade, regulated custody and markets”.

Last week at the Bakkt Digital Asset Summit, the commissioner at the US Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) - Dawn Stump said that there’s been massive demand and interest from the public for the Bitcoin Futures products. Moreover, he also added that cryptocurrencies don’t pose any major threat to financial stability at this stage.

The Bakkt platform is also working to create a complete ecosystem for institutional investors. For e.g., the platform is supposedly working on crypto custodial solution to store the Bitcoins for its physically-settled Bitcoin Futures contracts.

Another report from The Block last month also notes that the platform is working on its digital asset wallet and has stepped-up hiring for this process. Despite the regulatory delay for the approval of its Bitcoin Futures, Bakkt has been constantly working on creating other crypto solution.

The platform is also likely to soon launch its mobile application with easy and seamless interface for the users. Bakkt’s official website notes: Whether between consumers and merchants or peers, the ability to conduct transactions in digital assets holds promise as a these new global currencies evolve beyond a store of value or speculative assets, and as distributed ledger technology scales. Bakkt is working with leading merchants who recognize the potential of digital assets.”

Managing director at the Fundstrat Global Advisors, Sam Doctor, released the company’s crucial findings from the Bakkt Digital Asset Summit last week. The crypto advisor notes that the Bakkt Bitcoin Futures launch is likely to happen ahead this quarter itself. Its notes:

“There appears to be a critical mass of adopters ready to come on board on Day 1 of the Bakkt launch, with the sales team gaining traction among brokers, market makers, prop trading desks and liquidity providers.”