Bakkt is opening its user acceptance testing for Bitcoin futures. The much-hyped exchange is backed by major players like the Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft, and Starbucks.

In December of last year, Bakkt announced it had completed its first capital-raising round. With $182.5M raised from 12 partners and investors, some big names participated. Microsoft’s venture capital arm, M12, was one of the major investors. Moreover, the company also has investments from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) which operates 12 regulated exchanges and marketplaces. So, Bakkt has had a lot going behind it for a while now.

In honor of Jeff Sprecher, the Chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, calling the Bakkt a “bit of a moonshot bet,” the team has decided to unveil user testing just two days after Apollo 11’s 50th anniversary. Starting today, “Bakkt will initiate user acceptance testing for its Bitcoin futures listed and traded at ICE Futures U.S. and cleared at ICE Clear US,” the team has announced in a blogpost.

Unlike other futures markets for Bitcoin, Bakkt will transfer and move real Bitcoin on the exchange rather than IOUs. Moreover, the exchange hopes to boost institutional partnership. However, current limitations like poor market infrastructure and regulatory uncertainty have caused much of the cryptocurrency space to suffer from lower trading volumes, liquidity, and price transparency. Bakkt seeks to build up this trust which is woefully lacking as of now.

In fact, the team has even set up a comprehensive list of market risks and the solution Bakkt brings.

Bakkt has been delayed for some time, but it seems that the project is finally set for a complete launch. Once user testing is complete and the settlement layer on ICE is fully functional, we should see the full version of Bakkt release sometime this year.

Do you believe Bakkt will cause a significant impact on the cryptocurrency industry or is it over-hyped? Let us know your thoughts below.