Investing.com - Major cryptocurrencies except Bitcoin fell as the week drew to an end in Asia.
Bitcoin rose 1.39% to $8,198.9 by 12:57 PM ET (04:57 GMT). The coin continued to gain steam after surpassing $8,000 for the first time this week.
Other digital tokens fell though. Ethereum dropped 1.53% to $254.31, XRP slid 2.81% to $0.39516, and Litecoin was down 7.54% to $129.566.
The total market cap rose to $262.2 billion from $261.1 billion the day before.
Institutional cryptocurrency platform Bakkt will start testing its two physically-delivered Bitcoin futures contracts on July 22, but a final launch date is not confirmed yet.
"On July 22, two days after Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary, Bakkt will initiate user acceptance testing for its Bitcoin futures listed and traded at ICE (NYSE:ICE) Futures U.S. and cleared at ICE Clear US," said chief operating officer Adam White in a blog post, likening Bakkt’s launch to the Apollo 11 moon landing.
“This is no small step,” White said. “This launch will usher in a new standard for accessing crypto markets.”
This came after multiple delays due to regulatory hurdles since Bakkt first announced the plan in August 2018. Bakkt will settle its contracts in physical Bitcoin but not fiat currency, unlike other platforms.
"Subject to regulatory approval, Bakkt's limited purpose trust company will serve as a qualified custodian for bitcoin, will operate separately from ICE's futures exchange, will be insured for $100M, and will have separate governance," the blog post read.