Bakkt, the highly touted cryptocurrency exchange founded by the Intercontinental Exchange, saw zero Bitcoin options traded last week as it continues its hugely underwhelming start to life.

The Bitcoin futures exchange, governed by the company behind the New York Stock Exchange, was billed as a gateway for institutional investors to get in on the world of crypto trading given its close associations with established financial institutions. However, the pre-launch excitement failed to translate into activity as Bakkt traded just 623 futures contracts in the first week of launch in late September. Volume did start to pick up pace in November with monthly trading breaking the US$10 million mark.

However, according to data from Skew, Bakkt has seen no trading for its options in the last 10 days. As the weekends aren’t counted, the last activity registered took place on January 17, when 20 Bitcoin options changed hands. Bakkt’s closest rival, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), has fared considerably better in recent weeks since rolling out its Bitcoin options on January 13, with 55 contracts (about US$2.37 million in volume) traded on its first day, rising to 120 (US$5.25 million) by the end of the week.

Bakkt’s physically settled futures contracts, which were launched in December, were also met with underwhelming volumes in the early days—a fact that was immediately unfavorably compared with the fiat-settled BTC futures on CME, which first went to market in December 2017.

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“The activity on CME has been on the rise lately and outgrowing BTC. Open Interest is at approximately $240 million at CME. This is nearly $100 million more than last time Bitcoin was around the same price. The volume on CME is also way higher than in October, and has now been touching the area between $500-$700 million several times this year,” said a recent report by Arcane Research, suggesting that it is gaining an edge over Bakkt as the preferred platform among institutional investors.

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British telecom giant Vodafone is the latest firm to pull out of the Libra Association, the non-profit body overseeing the Facebook-led digital coin, bringing the total number of early backers to withdraw from the project to eight.

Vodafone Walks Away

Both Vodafone and Libra confirmed the news last week with the departure appearing to be amicable, despite several high profile withdrawals last year coming across as less than friendly. The telecom company now says it intends to dedicate resources previously allocated for the project to its own well-established digital payment service M-Pesa, which it plans to expand beyond the six African nations currently served.

Vodafone’s decision to leave the Libra Association does not appear to be driven by regulatory concerns or scrutiny leveled at the project, unlike PayPal, Mastercard, or Visa, all of which cited the intense criticism of the proposed digital asset as a key factor in their decisions walk away. However, Vodafone is the first company to depart the association since its official inception in Switzerland last October.

Libra Down to 20—For Now

In a statement, a Vodafone spokesperson said the company believes it can most effectively bring affordable financial services to the unbanked and underbanked by focusing on M-Pesa. “We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion,” the spokesperson said. “We remain fully committed to that goal.”

Now down to 20 members, The Libra Association said it intends to admit new members in 2020, with over 1,500 companies currently on a waitlist for membership. Dante Disparte, Libra’s communications chief, said, “although the makeup of the Association members may change over time, the design of Libra’s governance and technology ensures the Libra payment system will remain resilient.”

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As M-Pesa currently accepts a number of different currencies for remittance, the possibility that it may accept cryptocurrencies, including Libra, remains open. “We will continue to monitor the development of the Libra Association and do not rule out the possibility of future cooperation,” a Vodafone spokesperson said.

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