Bakkt Raises $182.5 Million from Its First Ever Funding Round

Bakkt, the cryptocurrency project of the American financial market company, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has completed its first ever institutional funding round. The company raised funding worth $182.M from a few notable institutional investors.

Thenoteworthy participants of the funding round are- Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, Galaxy Digital, Boston Consulting Group, Eagle Seven, Pantera Capital, Horizon Ventures, M12 (Microsoft’s venture capital arm), and few others took part in the event.

Bakkt was established by ICE in order to create a trading platform for the people. The platform helps both institutions and consumers to trade digital assets. Currently, ICE also operates the New York Stock Exchange.

Currently, the startup hasn’t got regulatory approvals yet, and once they get the green signal, it will roll out a one-day physically delivered Bitcoin futures contract along with physical warehousing. Bakkt intended to roll out the service in November 2018 but according to reports, the startup will launch as soon as possible once they get approvals from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Bakkt’s launch was announced in August 2018. The cryptocurrency project is handled by CEO Kelly Loeffler.  Since its establishment, the startup joined hands with Software giant Microsoft and Starbucks. The partnerships helped Bakkt to get a good cloud infrastructure and it allowed them to develop good applications for consumers.

The application helps the consumers to convert their digital assets into USD for utilizing at Starbucks.