As we get closer to the end of 2018, we can definitely say that 2018 wasn’t the best year for crypto, as Bitcoin and most major altcoins lost 80 – 90% of their initial value.
Looking for the new coming year of 2019, some of the topics that could change the negative sentiment might come on behalf of the institutional investors’ side. Hence, Bakkt was one of the hottest topics for the recent year.
Bakkt that was formed by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is building its futures platform to offer custody services for large institutional investors, and their most important innovation is that they are operating under US regulations.
“Bakkt is designed to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security, and utility,” said Kelly Loeffler, CEO of Bakkt.
In the last hours of 2018, great news came from Bakkt, as they had announced upon completion of a (very) successful first round of funding.
According to Bakkt, some of the round’s investors include Boston Consulting Group, CMT Digital, Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12, Pantera Capital (which is known as a leading crypto VC), and the fintech arm of Naspers.
“Notably, 2018 was the most active year for crypto in its brief ten-year history. This was evidenced by rising investment in distributed ledger technology and digital assets, as well as by blockchain network metrics such as daily bitcoin transaction value and active addresses. Yet, these milestones tend to be overshadowed by the more narrow focus on bitcoin’s price, which has been seen by some, as a proxy for the potential of the technology.”, as stated by CEO Kelly Loeffler.
After a couple of frustrating delays, the latest status of the launch date of the futures exchange is January 24, 2019. However, the pending approval from US regulators is still the primary boundary preventing Bakkt from launch, and as of now, it seems that the chances to launch on time given are very low.
UPDATE: In a recent update from now, ICE confirms the above stating that:
“The launch had previously been set for January 24, 2019, but will be amended pursuant to the CFTC’s process and timeline. ICE expects to provide an updated launch timeline in early 2019”