Bakkt Bitcoin futures smashes daily volume record by 36%

Bakkt, a regulated platform for crypto asset custody and trading owned by Intercontinental Exchange, has reported record daily trading volumes for its physically-settled Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts.

On September 16, Bakkt announced that more than $200 million worth of BTC contracts had been traded over a single day — breaking its previous record by 36%.

According to crypto market data aggregator Skew, the record figure is roughly double the average daily volumes posted throughout September so far.

Bakkt daily Bitcoin futures volume: Skew

Despite being touted as the likely catalyst for an institutional-led bull market, Bakkt’s Bitcoin derivatives failed to meet the expected impact — seeing sustained periods of complete inactivity during January of this year. However, the steady increase in volume recently enjoyed by the platform suggests that institutions are now warming to it.

A point of difference for Bakkt’s contracts is they are supposedly ‘physically settled’ in Bitcoin rather than cash. However, analysts have highlighted that most contracts traded on Bakkt are rolled over — with only a minority of traders opting to receive Bitcoin when the contracts expire.

Despite the new all-time high, Bakkt’s volumes pale in comparison to the trade activity on the largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Over the past 24 hours, Binance’s BTC-USDT perpetual contract — a futures contracts with no expiry or settlement date — drove $2.65 billion in trade, while the exchange’s 74 futures pairings pushed $5.96 billion collectively.

Huobi’s 103 futures pairings generated $5.48 billion in trade over the past 24 hours, including $1.28 billion from the platform’s BTC-USD perpetual contract. OKEx’s BTC-USD perpetual contracts saw $516 million worth of trading today, with the exchange’s 466 futures pairings driving $2.72 billion in total.

However, Bakkt beat out Derebit today, with Derebit’s BTC-USD contract generating $168 in 24-hour volume.

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