Bakkt Acquired Regulatory Approval From The US Regulators

Bakkt acquired the needed approval from the US regulators to start trading physically-settled bitcoin futures which is a move many believed will provide greater legitimacy to the crypto industry before the institutional investors as we are now reading in the coming altcoin news below.

The Intercontinental Exchange’s subsidiary announced back on Friday that the New York Department of Financial Services has provided Bakkt the clearance to acquire a New York state trust charter. This will provide the exchange of permission to start operating as a limited liability company which means it could also custody bitcoins for physically delivered futures. The new service will be launched on September 23^rd. According to their blog post, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler pointed out that the Bitcoin futures contracts have already received approval from the Commodity Futures Trading Commission via the self-certification process. Bakkt will now introduce an institutional-grade custodial solution named the Bakkt Warehouse and will meet the highest standard of oversight. Loeffler noted:

 “Bakkt bitcoin futures contracts will not rely upon unregulated spot markets for settlement prices, thus serving as a transparent price discovery mechanism for the benchmark price for bitcoin. The importance of this differentiator is only amplified by reports of significant manipulative spot market activity, and other concerns such as inconsistent anti-money-laundering policies and weak compliance controls.”

The futures contracts will now be exchange-traded on the ICE futures while ICE Clear US will provide clearance. This marks the first time physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts will be listed on the regulated exchange. The move also provides comfort for investors who wanted to speculate on Bitcoin but now have other plans owing to higher risks, market surveillance and lack of compliance associated with the global cryptocurrency exchanges. Loeffler pointed out after Bakkt acquired the approval:

 “Providing a trusted ecosystem is our first objective. To do that we are setting a higher standard, including an institutional compliance and anti-money laundering program, settlement prices that are distinct from unregulated spot prices, comprehensive market oversight, a guaranty fund contribution, and insurance.”

As we read in the reports in the latest cryptocurrency news, Bakkt had plans to launch its services in December 2018 after they get the CFTC approval but the delays prompted it to self-regulate the contract. Bakkt announced later that they will begin accepting users in order to test Bitcoin futures contracts on July 22.