Bakkt was supposed to revolutionise the futures market by becoming the first “physical” future exchange with BTC as its main currency. This would allow to simplify the taxation and bureaucracy involved, as well as give Bitcoin another push into the mass adoption. However, Kelly Loeffler’s project is old news — LedgerX just launched and it offers the same features Bakkt promises its potential customers.
Why LedgerX Is Awesome
LedgerX allows any US resident to trade futures for Bitcoin. What is even more important, both institutional and retail investors are allowed on the exchange, as long as they pass the KYC process.
LedgerX is built on the Omni platform, which was revealed earlier and will serve as a foundation for the company’s other products. This would theoretically allow for better scalability and make development for the exchange a lot more streamlined.
The system was supposed to originally launch in April but CFTC didn’t provide the necessary licenses until last month — which was the final approval LedgerX needed. Overall, LedgerX spent more than 5 years working on the exchange, and the end result is remarkably polished.
What About Other Future Providers
LedgerX is the first provider to allow payouts directly in Bitcoin, without any convertation process. However, it’s not the first provider of Bitcoin futures in the US by far, and the competition will be rather brutal. Kraken is the big shark on this market and LedgerX will have to fight tooth and nail to remove Jesse Powell’s company out of the top spot.
Still, LedgerX does bring a few unique advantages — for example, you can deposit bitcoin in the first place. And if you prefer cold hard USD, you can use it too — as long as your payouts will also be in the US national currency.
What Does It Mean For Bitcoin
Any other time, such good news would cause a major bullrush on the BTC pairs. Unfortunately, not this time. The market is still recoiling from the loss of the 10 000 USD/BTC position, and overall the launch of LedgerX went rather unnoticed.
, 02.08.2019
This article reflects a personal opinion and should not be interpreted as an investment advice, and/or offer, and/or a persistent request for carrying out financial transactions, and/or a guarantee, and/or a forecast of future events.
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