Bakkt: Futures Can ‘Possibly’ Predict Halving Impact on Bitcoin Price

The COO of institutional trading platform Bakkt appears unsure about its futures market predicting the impact of the 2020 Bitcoin halving event.

White: We want to “lead price discovery”

Speaking to CNN in an interview on Sept. 23, Adam White said that Bakkt’s newly-launched futures contracts should help the market value Bitcoin (BTC). 

“We hope the Bakkt daily and monthly futures contracts lead price discovery,” he told the network. 

Bakkt debuted its Bitcoin futures this weekend, trading 71 contracts on its first day. While its release was keenly awaited, the company is looking forward to increasing on-ramps for new investors who will in turn help in charting price trajectory.

Futures predicting 2020 Bitcoin price “possible”

When asked whether the contracts should also forecast changes as a result of the block reward halving next May, however, White appeared less certain.

“Possibly,” he said, continuing:

“We think this is an important part of the futures contract — to help businesses discover what the fair market value of Bitcoin’s going to be through events like this.”

The block reward halving refers to the roughly four-yearly drop in the reward miners receive for validating each block of Bitcoin transactions. Currently, at 12.5 BTC, the reward will become 6.25 BTC next year. 

As Cointelegraph reported, anticipation has run high for months about the potential for the halving to dramatically increase the price of BTC/USD. After the last halving in July 2016, a bull market took just a matter of months to begin, culminating in Bitcoin’s current all-time high of $20,000.