Bakkt, a company owned by the New York Stock Exchange, recently announced their decision to postpone the launch of their highly anticipated Bitcoin Futures trading platform until late January 2019. To back this up, on November 21 they released a positive update on why they are now prioritizing Bitcoin.
In a 2-part Twitter thread, Bakkt noted that Bitcoin is their primary focus due to its high liquidity, customer demand, and classification as a commodity by the US Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).
As the world’s most liquid and widely distributed cryptocurrency, and where we’ve seen the most customer demand, bitcoin’s profile creates a liquid product on which to build a futures contract (2/2)
— Bakkt (@Bakkt) November 21, 2018
Despite the recent downfall in Bitcoin’s price, BTC still remains king, as it currently holds 53.1% of the total cryptocurrency market capitalization and is the most widely known and adopted cryptocurrency to date. Which is why Bakkt finds Bitcoin to be the most trustworthy cryptocurrency for robust futures contracts.
Postponed Bitcoin Futures Raises Eyebrows
As reported on November 20, 2018, Bakkt delayed the launch of their Bitcoin futures trading platform until January 24, 2019. The delay came just 1 day after the price of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market as a whole began to plummet.
Bakkt provided the reasoning behind this decision in an official Medium post written by Kelly Loeffler, the CEO at Bakkt. In the post, she stated that the primary reason for the delay was due to regulatory approval from the CFTC, and that there is more work to be done.
While this may very well be true, the timing of this announcement has raised some questions.
People are speculating as to why Bakkt waited to announce the delay of their highly anticipated Bitcoin futures trading until after the crypto markets started to plummet. There has been talk amongst the community that Bakkt may be trying to manipulate the market by announcing this bad news to further push the market down. Is this all a convenient coincidence, or is part of a calculated effort to bring the price of cryptocurrency down to levels that institutions are comfortable investing in?
While we do not know the answer to this question — and overthinking it can lead us into the realm of “tin foil hat theories” — it is certainly food for thought. And it is worthwhile keeping an eye on Bakkt and other institutions and see how they handle the ups and downs of the crypto market.
A Bright Future For Bitcoin?
There has been a lot of interest and talk about institutions coming to crypto. In recent months, we have seen KPMG’s bullish crypto report, both Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao and Bitcoin Bull Mike Novogratz predicting institutions embracing crypto as inevitable, and countless other remarks about institutions circulating in the crypto community.
Now certainly would be the opportune time for a company like Bakkt to invest in Bitcoin, while the price is low. These theories and ideas have been circulating in the crypto community for quite some time. Just recently, the highly comical and popular crypto YouTuber “Crypto Daily” released a video on the matter.
Do you think the announcement of Bakkt’s delay was timed to manipulate the price downwards, or is this just a tin foil hat theory? Do you think institutions coming to crypto want the market to drop so they can get in and then manipulate the price upwards? Let us know in the comments below.
