Bakkt is a popular platform for storing, spending, and trading virtual assets. The worldwide exchange operator - ICE, launched the platform earlier this year.
According to the document, the ICE will use Bakkt to list Bitcoin Daily Futures Contracts on 12th December 2018. The ICE Clear U.S Inc will physically settle and clear the product. The note further adds that each futures contract is equivalent to one Bitcoin held in the platform’s digital asset warehouse, trading in terms of U.S dollars. Every exchange business day, one daily contract will get listed.
The announcement follows a previous statement made earlier in September, stating that the company will physically deliver its first Bitcoin futures contracts against fiat currencies – U.S dollars, euro, and sterling pounds.
As per earlier reports, Bakkt is not supporting margin trading for the BTC futures contracts. By not allowing margin trading, cash settlement, and leverage, the platform expects to improve its support for market integrity. It will also enable the formation of a trusted price, a key point for the development of digital currencies.
Earlier in December 2017, the CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) and CBOE (Chicago Board of Operations Exchange) unveiled Bitcoin futures. During the summer, the Federal Reserve Bank in San Francisco published an economic letter saying that the fast run-up and subsequent drop in price after the introduction of futures is not coincidental. The bank revealed that the trend is consistent with market behaviors that usually accompany the introduction of futures as an asset.