Bakkt Announces Sept. 23 Launch of Futures and Custody Platform in US

Bakkt has announced the coming launch of its much-anticipated platform for daily and monthly futures in the United States in a blog post on Aug. 16. Having received approval from the necessary regulators, the launch is scheduled for Sept. 23.  

Bakkt’s physically delivered futures have been the subject of a great deal of anticipation, with the company initially announcing its launch August 2018 before being subject to repeated delays over compliance issues. Satisfying the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has proven particularly challenging. The company began testing in earnest on July 22, as Cointelegraph reported at the time. 

Per the announcement, Bakkt has hosted numerous events in New York and Chicago — cities critical to the U.S. futures market. They have also sat down with regulators from the CFTC as well as the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

Bakkt will be partnering with Intercontinental Exchange Futures U.S. and Intercontinental Exchange Clear U.S. to provide its futures contracts.

Institutional services and custody have been a growing market in crypto, with major U.S. exchange Coinbase announcing the addition of Xapo’s Institutions into its custodial operation last night. After the announcement, Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong commented on the major rise in institutional clients for crypto services, saying: 

“Whether institutions were going to adopt crypto or not was an open question about 12 months ago. I think it's safe to say we now know the answer. We're seeing $200-400M a week in new crypto deposits come in from institutional customers.”