New York: NYSE, owned by Intercontinental Exchange which is also the one of the world’s biggest exchange, is finally entering into the cryptocurrency market. It has announced that its new Bitcoin venture ‘Bakkt’ will be created with an aim to ‘create an open and regulated, global ecosystem for cryptocurrency’.
The Intercontinental Exchange Inc. not only one of the world’s biggest exchange but also owns some of the biggest future markets. While announcing the new venture it also revealed that this new venture will team up with Starbucks Corp. and Microsoft Corp. and future contract on cryptocurrency.
As per the statement released by the exchange on Friday, it is expected that a one-day futures contract will be introduced by the venture in November. This contract will be different from derivatives which are already in the offering by the other US competitors like CME Group Inc. and Cboe Global Markets Inc. This will be different as the owners of the contract will receive Bitcoin instead of cash when the contract would expire whereas other competitors don’t offer this.
Kelly Loefller, CEO of Bakkt, said, “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.”
He further added, “We are collaborating to build an open platform that helps unlock the transformative potential of digital assets across global markets and commerce.”
Loeffler was the head of communications at Intercontinental Exchange till now.
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Bitcoin witnessed an uphill surge last year, but still, most of the countries don’t use it to buy or sell actual goods. A lot of startups tried to include the digital currencies into mainstream by developing exchanges or payments solutions for merchants, but success came to only a few of them as only they were able to connect all the necessary players and rest failed in doing so.
Looking at the opportunity, the Intercontinental Exchange is looking forward to become the one-stop solution which would take digital currencies from a speculative investment to a staple of global e-commerce.
The statement released by the Intercontinental Exchange revealed that Starbucks and Microsoft will be teaming up in the efforts of the exchange to help the consumers as well as institutions in buying, selling, storing and spending digital currencies.
As per the statement, Fortress Investment Group, Eagle Seven, Galaxy Digital, Horizons Ventures, Alan Howard, Pantera Capital, Protocol Ventures and Susquehanna International Group are expected to invest in Bakkt other than the venture capital arm of Intercontinental Exchange and Microsoft.
