Bitcoin price has jumped back above $7000 gaining over 7% in the last 24 hours. This price jump in Bitcoin is reportedly due to a massive spike in the Bakkt Bitcoin Futures volume. Thus, despite the Bitcoin price volatility, institutional trading for Bitcoin seems on the rise.
A Twitter handle dubbed Bakkt Volume Bot has highlighted this rise.
∙ Today’s volume so far: 6312 BTC ($45.56 million)
∙ Last traded price: $7,218
∙ Trading day progress: 83%
∙ Current daily Bakktarget™: 6994 BTC ($50.48 million)— Bakkt Volume Bot (@BakktBot) December 19, 2019
In the last three days, Bitcoin has been on a roller-coaster ride. Earlier this week on Monday, December 16, the price of Bitcoin slipped below its crucial support $7000. Along with Bitcoin, the top-ten altcoins also crashed with the overall cryptocurrency market losing over $7 billion in a single day.
This price crash was reportedly due to a scam by the China-based cryptocurrency wallet, PlusToken scammers. With a heavy BTC dumping by the scammers, Bitcoin price entered into a downward spiral before finally picking up. On Wednesday, December 18, Bitcoin hit its six-month low at $6598. However, the price chart suddenly took a U-turn northwards.
At press time Bitcoin is trading at $7174 with a market cap of $130 billion.
The Rising Demand for Bitcoin Futures
Bakkt launch of physically-settled Bitcoin futures contracts in September 2019 has helped to revive institutional interest in the cryptocurrency market. Despite a bit slow start, the demand for Bakkt’s futures contracts gathered momentum. This momentum seems to be on a continuous rise for the moment.
Though the start of Bakkt’s history was not very optimistic, now it breaks records just one after another.
Thanks to the rising open interest in Bakkt Bitcoin Futures that investors have a sigh of relief from the massive dumping in the last three days. The interest in Bakkt’s Bitcoin Futures looks to be sustainable based on data. Earlier this month, CoinSpeaker reported that Bakkt’s monthly futures trade set has hit record volume of $124 million.
Citing high demand from its traders, Bakkt also launched options for its Bitcoin futures in December 2019. Speaking on this matter, Bakkt COO Adam White said:
“At Bakkt, our mission is to bring trust and utility to digital assets. These new contracts represent an important milestone in the development of this emerging asset class and our bitcoin product complex.”
With Bakkt currently dominating the Bitcoin futures space, it has a competition coming up from new players. Yesterday, cryptocurrency derivatives platform ErisX also launched its physically-settled Bitcoin futures contracts in direct competition to Bakkt.
ErisX’s Bitcoin futures will trade under the approval of CFTC since it has received the Derivative Clearing Organization (DCO) license from the regulator.
Bhushan is a FinTech enthusiast and holds a good flair in understanding financial markets. His interest in economics and finance draw his attention towards the new emerging Blockchain Technology and Cryptocurrency markets. He is continuously in a learning process and keeps himself motivated by sharing his acquired knowledge. In free time he reads thriller fictions novels and sometimes explore his culinary skills.
