With bitcoin’s recent fall into the $8,000 range it appears the currency has an unlikely friend… Wall Street.
What Wall Street Is Doing for BTC
That’s right. The arena of big banks and stock players is working hard to develop ways for bitcoin to avoid volatility. As of late, many reports have emerged stating that the currency is experiencing its lowest volatility in months. That all changed yesterday when it seemingly lost more than $1,000 in value in just a matter of minutes, but prior, the currency was enduring a long-lasting standstill.
Nevertheless, it appears the currency is still suffering and vulnerable to price swings, and until this little problem is solved, we can expect bitcoin to remain at the bottom of the financial ladder. It will never become mainstream, it will never be legitimized, and it will never be ready for widespread use.
Wall Street is hoping to invoke new businesses, products and strategies designed to assist bitcoin in its journey towards greater stability. One such product was the Bakkt futures contracts platform, released to the public last Sunday.
The regulation guiding the platform is designed to bring bitcoin and crypto to a new level, but it hasn’t caught on quite yet. Some are nervous about these newly imposed rules backing what are designed to be decentralized assets, which may have contributed to the low-end participation the platform experienced within its first 24 hours.
Still, Wayne Chen – the CEO of Interlapse Technologies – says that the introduction of Bakkt is a good thing in that it’s gotten the ball rolling on later bitcoin-based regulated products. He explains:
The launch of a bitcoin futures contract through ICE is a significant advancement for bitcoin futures trading. Bitcoin is deemed as a commodity by regulators and adding it into a futures contract is the right move… Bitcoin futures trading has already seen the spotlight in December 2017 through CME. Although trading was settled in cash rather than physical bitcoins at the time, it provided an essence of legitimacy for taking bitcoin mainstream. Ultimately, providing more comfort and assurance to investors.
Unfortunately, some analysts believe Wall Street’s plays in the bitcoin arena are likely to lead to a bumpy road – one in which instability is much more common at first than stability.
A Rough Road Leads to Clear Waters
Ryan Uhr, CEO and co-founder of Coin Plug, comments:
A new opening of a BTC derivative market may have a negative effect on the BTC price in the short term because it gives traders more chances to bet on a price decline. With no markets to provide short-selling opportunities (or something similar), only BTC holders can sell BTC, thereby negatively affecting the market price. Whereas if people can sell BTC futures, they may get benefits when the price moves downward even without holding the underlying BTC.
