NYSE Owner ICE Announces A Global Ecosystem For Digital Assets Called Bakkt
On Friday, Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) the parent company of New-York-Stock-Exchange (NYSE) announced its plans to form a new venture called Bakkt in collaboration with other Industry giants like BCG, Microsoft, Starbucks, and others.
In the official press release, the company notes that Bakkt aims to create a regulated, open and global ecosystem for digital assets, and will be leveraging Microsoft’s cloud-based blockchain solutions for the same. The company also plans to streamline the digital-asset spending by developing and integrate and seamless global network making it easy for users to buy, sell, hold and spend their digital asset holdings.
Bakkt ultimately aims to create a safe marketplace under proper regulation observation thereby safeguarding the interests of investors and instilling confidence among them. Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange said: “In bringing regulated, connected infrastructure together with institutional and consumer applications for digital assets, we aim to build confidence in the asset class on a global scale, consistent with our track record of bringing transparency and trust to previously unregulated markets.”
In the press release, ICE also notes that by November 2018, the exchange is willing to introduce one-day "physical" bitcoin futures contract - meaning that Bitcoins will be actually delivered as digital tokens unlike the other cash-settled Bitcoin futures contract like CBOE and CME. ICE says that it is currently working with other regulatory authorities like CFTC and others.
Kelly Loeffler, 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. We are collaborating to build an open platform that helps unlock the transformative potential of digital assets across global markets and commerce.”
America’s most popular coffeehouse chain is also a part of this project. The coffee maker will be developing "practical, trusted and regulated" applications that make it easy for its customers to convert the digital holdings into fiat and spend them across global Starbucks outlets.
Maria Smith, Vice President, Partnerships and Payments for Starbucks said: “As the flagship retailer, Starbucks will play a pivotal role in developing practical, trusted and regulated applications for consumers to convert their digital assets into US dollars for use at Starbucks. As a leader in Mobile Pay to our more than 15 million Starbucks Rewards members, Starbucks is committed to innovation for expanding payment options for our customers.”
As Bakkt is caring up for the launch, the company will soon announce other operational details in coming weeks.