The final week of September has been busy for the blockchain and cryptocurrency world. Perhaps the biggest news of the week is that Bakkt officially launched its physically backed Bitcoin (BTC) futures contracts on Monday. The long anticipated debut of the novel futures platform disappointed investors with a slower-than-expected start on its first trading day, with only 28 daily contracts and 66 monthly contracts traded. In comparison, Bitcoin futures on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange registered a volume of $460 million in its first week in December 2017 during the height of the crypto bubble. But some market analysts believe a slow start is no problem. Su Zhu, CEO of Singapore-based hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, said most regulated futures contracts see low adoption in the first days because not all brokers are ready to clear them. Others believe Bakkt's launch will help boost institutional investment into the crypto sector.
Here is the rest of the week in review:
Kik Interactive announced that it is shutting down its Kik messaging app, which has hundreds of thousands of users, in a controversial move. Kik Interactive CEO Ted Livingstone confirmed the shutdown. He said the Kik app will discontinue, and the team will shrink to 19 core developers in an effort to ensure the success of the KIN crypto project. Kik is currently in a dispute with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over a 2017 initial coin offering of its KIN token. The ICO raised $100 million, but the SEC claims it was an unregistered securities offering. Although the Kik app and Kin Foundation will be closed, Livingstone said the core developer team is pivoting toward developing the KIN token. He added that Kik Interactive is committed to continuing its legal fight with the SEC in order to bolster the KIN ecosystem.
SoFi announced its crypto trading platform will be available to users next Tuesday. The fintech firm's CEO Anthony Noto told Fortune that Bitcoin, Ethereum (ETH), and Litecoin (LTC) will be the first digital assets available to trade on its SoFi Invest platform. Noto noted that cryptocurrency trading has long been requested by the firm's clients. With the new platform launch, SoFi joins a group of mainly online trading firms including Robinhood, Abra, and Circle. Originally called Social Finance, the firm targeted millennial investors through its student loan consolidation and refinance services. Coinbase will help support the SoFi platform's crypto liquidity. The partnership will also let SoFi users track crypto price movements. The firm said it hopes to become registered in all 50 states within a few months.
Crypto prices plunged this week to below $215 billion, posting one of the sector's worst weeks in a year. For the majors, Bitcoin SV (BSV), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and EOS suffered the worst losses of near 30%, while Tether (USDT) climbed 0.4%. In the top 100, the biggest losers were Lambda (LAMB), down 51%, V Systems (VSYS), down 32%, and Bytom (BTM), down 30%. The biggest gainers were Seele (SEELE), up a whopping 82%, Crypterium (CRPT), down 10%, and Newton (NEW), down 7%. It is unclear if a fundamental catalyst caused the decline, but next week traders will watch and hope crypto can rebound from support levels.
The author owns a small amount of BTC and LTC.
