Bakkt Bitcoin Futures Daily Trading Volume Hits Record High

Sep 16, 2020 at 13:35 UTC

Bakkt President Adam White (CoinDesk archives)

Trading volume in physically delivered bitcoin futures listed on Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt platform surged to record highs on Tuesday.

The derivatives exchange traded record 15,955 contracts, worth more than $200 million. That’s up 36% more than the previous lifetime high of 11,706 contracts on July 28, 2020.
Daily volumes have increased by more than 1,000% on a year-to-date basis, according to data source Skew.
Physically settled futures require bitcoin to be delivered on the specified delivery date rather than being traded out with offsetting contracts.
“Since we first launched Bakkt nearly a year ago, we’ve remained committed to expanding trust in and unlocking the value of digital assets,” said Adam White, president of Bakkt, said in a press release.
Bakkt still lags the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, which registered a volume of $262 billion on Tuesday and a record daily volume of $1.2 billion in August.
As of Sept. 15, Bakkt accounted for just 1.6% of the global futures trading volume of $12 billion.
Binance traded $2.8 billion worth of futures contracts and was the largest exchange by trading volume.
“While Bakkt registered one of its highest volume days in physically settled futures [Tuesday], that was still about 30% less than CME futures, which ironically was on the lower end of year-to-date volumes,” Vishal Shah, an options trader and founder of derivatives exchange Alpha5, told CoinDesk.