Bakkt Begins Bitcoin Futures UAT, BTC Price Drops 5%

The highly-anticipated launch of the Bitcoin futures trading platform Bakkt, owned by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) begins user acceptance testing for its Bitcoin Daily and Monthly futures contracts. Contrary to what many expected, however, the price reacted negatively, dropping 5 percent following the announcement.

Bakkt Kicks Off User Acceptance Testing (UAT)

As Cryptopotato reported earlier in June, Bakkt was scheduled to begin user acceptance testing on July 22nd. Without any delays, the Bitcoin futures trading platform announced that it kicks off

UAT for their daily and monthly Bitcoin futures contracts.

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 (@Bakkt) July 22, 2019

Supposedly, participants from around the world are accepted. The interesting thing about Bakkt’s Bitcoin futures contracts is that they are physically settled. This means that once the contract expires, instead of receiving the cash equivalent of the underlying asset, the user will be receiving the asset itself. In this case, that’s Bitcoin.

There are two types of contracts based on the settlement period. The first one will be settled daily, while the second one will allow users to receive exposure for a longer time frame and it will be settled monthly.

It’s also worth noting that Bakkt is supposed to contribute $35 million within its clearinghouse risk waterfall. Moreover, the physical delivery and the secure storage of Bitcoin is going to be carried out through an integrated custody service which will be a subject to regulatory approval.

Bitcoin Price Plunges in Response

Interestingly enough, the highly-anticipated launch of the UAT of Bakkt didn’t trigger any positive action in Bitcoin’s price. Just on the contrary, the cryptocurrency is down about 5 percent in the past 24 hours.