Put simply, Bakkt plans to tackle how digital assets are bought, sold, stored, and spent, in a safe and efficient way. ICE wants to transform Bitcoin into a trusted global currency with broad usage, and Bakkt is their attempt to spark that transformation.

ICE is positioning Bakkt to bring digital assets to the mainstream, potentially even opening up the possibilities for the first SEC-approved Bitcoin ETF. The SEC has denied all ETFs requests this past year due to a lack of a trusted price formation, which leaves room for price manipulation. Bakkt aims to solve these issues, allowing a prospective ETF to be both trusted and efficient.

“A critical element to price discovery is physical delivery. Specifically, with our solution, the buying and selling of Bitcoin is fully collateralized or pre-funded. As such, our new daily Bitcoin contract will not be traded on margin, use leverage, or serve to create a paper claim on a real asset.”

Bakkt has said its exchange will not allow Bitcoin to be traded on margin or leverage, and that they want to establish its focus on finding a trusted price formation. This makes Bakkt inherently different from other institutional Bitcoin markets that have opened in the past; Bakkt will actually trade Bitcoin, and will not just speculate on its price movements — this is incredibly important and very good.

Kelly Loeffler, the CEO of Bakkt, stated in a recent blog that in order to achieve a trusted infrastructure for trading, storing, and spending digital currencies, they need to provide the following:

· A consistent regulatory construct

· Transparent, efficient price discovery

· An institutional quality pre- and post- trade infrastructure

These three aspects differentiate Bakkt from other exchanges. This new platform will provide a secure, regulated, warehouse solution that consumers and institutional investors alike can trust.

Bakkt’s Goals — Is the Platform Good for Bitcoin?