In its new press release, Intercontinental Exchange has revealed that the launch of its Bakkt's cash-settled Bitcoin futures will take place on Dec. 6. This confirms the statement that was made by Bakkt COO Adam White who claimed that Bitcoin-to-USD futures would go live by the end of the year.
The cash-settled futures contracts of the recently launched cryptocurrency trading platform will be listed ICE Futures Singapore, thus becoming the first crypto product offered by the pan-Asian trading venue.
The announcement comes right after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) proposed regulating cryptocurrency futures on Nov. 20 in its consultation paper to address an increasing interest towards such products from institutional investors. The MAS also rang alarm bells for retail investors, warning them about the risks that are associated with the highly volatile asset class.
"The underlying payment tokens tend to exhibit high volatility and are intrinsically difficult to value ... Losses also amplified due to the leveraged nature of derivatives, and investors may even lose more than the whole amount they had put in," MAS said.
As reported by U.Today, Bakkt launched the first physically-settled Bitcoin futures on Sept. 23, which was followed by a sharp 20 percent drop of the Bitcoin price. This product is unique because traders are paid directly in BTC upon the expiration date.
Cash-settled Bitcoin futures are nothing new. Both Cboe and CME introduced them in December 2017, but the former had to halt the addition of new contracts since it had a hard time competing with its next-door rival.
Valeria Blokhina
