World's Biggest Stock Exchange Operator ICE To Launch A Bitcoin Market August 03, 2018

Recently, there breaks a big news in the world of cryptocurrencies!! Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has made a very important announcement. ICE, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange(NYSE) stated that it will list physically-settled bitcoin-related contracts ( future contracts) and will form a new company with the goal of making Bitcoin a mainstream financial asset. On Friday, the ICE broke out this big announcement and revealed this new platform named Bakkt. The associates of this platform is a collection of some fantastic companies like Microsoft, Starbucks, and BCG. The platform Bakkt will combine with the ICE’s U.S futures market and also the clearinghouse. This combination will result in the listing of a physically-settled one-day bitcoin product. This product will be launched in November as the regulatory approval is pending. To quote the CEO of Bakkt, Kelly Loeffler,

“Bakkt is deigned to serve as a scalable on-ramp for institutional, merchant and consumer participation in digital assets by promoting greater efficiency, security and utility.” Adding more to it, the CEO stated, “ We are collaborating to build an open platform that helps unlock the transformative potential of digital assets across global markets and commerce.”

Bakkt is also intended to be an overall platform that helps digital assets to grow into a mainstream financial asset class. The founder, chairman, and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Jeffrey C. Sprecher speaks about Bakkt and says,

“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 an interview with Fortune, both Sprecher and Loeffler speaks about their ambitious goal for Bakkt. They revealed that the platform will have the feature of its own “omnibus ledger” that will operate on the top of the bitcoin blockchain, very similar to the Lightning Network. To talk about the role of Starbucks, the Vice President, Partnerships and Payments for Starbucks, Maria Smith says,

“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.”

In addition to that, she says,

“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.”

Sprecher told the publication, “Bitcoin would greatly simplify the movement of global money.” He believes that Bitcoin has the potential to become the first worldwide currency. Further, he says,

“To evolve, the cryptocurrencies need to run on established infrastructure. They need the trust and rules that have been built into our financial system for many years. They need the kind of

trust that the Big Board represents.”

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