Yesterday, Bakkt’s Bitcoin Monthly Futures trading volumes reached a new record of all times: 12,791 contracts traded for a value of $147.7 million.
https://twitter.com/BakktBot/status/1298505997808332808
The previous record had been recorded at the end of July, with 11,509 contracts traded, for a total value of approximately $137.8 million.
This represents a substantial increase, with 11% more contracts traded, and a 15% increase in their volume in dollars.
In reality, volumes had already been particularly high the previous day, exceeding $132 million, while for the rest of August they had never exceeded $100 million, with a minimum peak of $40.6 million on August 14th.
Considering that yesterday the price of bitcoin lost up to 5%, this historical peak in volumes on Bakkt’s contracts is difficult to interpret. Moreover, a historical high recorded in August is even more difficult to explain, as this is generally a month with not particularly high volumes.
To tell the truth, however, looking at the chart of bitcoin trading volumes over the last six months, it can be seen that the period with the lowest trading was between mid-June and mid-July, when the price had remained relatively stable in an area between $9,000 and $10,000.
The record growth of Bakkt’s trading volumes
Volumes increased at the end of July, when the price hit over $11,000, and since then they have remained relatively strong, more or less at the levels of the days following the halving of May 11th.
However, there was no peak on crypto exchanges yesterday, so the high of Bakkt does not seem to be related to the volumes traded on exchanges. Instead, it could have affected the loss of value of the price, although this too does not appear to be an anomaly on the crypto markets.
Moreover, the sustained trading volumes of two days ago for the futures of Bakkt, when the price had moved a little, would seem to suggest that there could be also other motivations.
Finally, it should be remembered that Bakkt futures, unlike CME futures, are settled in BTC, and that $147 million traded in one day is actually not a lot, compared for example to the daily trading volumes of CME, or those of crypto derivative platforms such as OKEx, BitMEX, Huobi or Binance.
