The much-anticipated Bakkt platform being launched by the Intercontinental Exchange has rounded off 2018 by announcing the completion of its first round of funding. The total amount raised from the 12 partners and investors is $182.5 million.

The list of those contributing capital to the project includes Boston Consulting Group, CMT Digital, Eagle Seven, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, the ICE itself, Microsoft’s venture wing, M12, Pantera Capital, PayU, and Galaxy Digital. Bakkt was also keen to acknowledge that all those involved “believe in the future of digital assets.”

Bakkt Not Phased by 2018 Bear Market

The news that the Bakkt project has completed its first round of funding broke via the firm’s CEO’s Medium account. After proudly declaring the amount raised and the list of funding, Kelly Loeffler detailed the progress that has been made by the company in 2018 and what is to come in 2019.

She began:

“Our work today is centred on driving institutional access for digital assets, along with merchant and consumer uses, and we’re already expanding on this vision, collaborating with great companies like Starbucks in these efforts.”

The post goes on to detail the plans Bakkt has to create an institutional “one stop shop” for cryptocurrency. This will include the world’s first ever fully regulated exchange, clearing, and warehousing service for physical delivery of futures.

Bakkt is currently awaiting regulatory approval for all this. However, as mentioned in the Medium post, every effort has been made to remain compliant with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. This has involved close work between the two entities. In the meantime, new clients continue to join the waiting list to use the Bakkt service and the post’s author welcomes them.

As if to calm those doubting the future of the digital asset space in the wake of the 2018 bear market, Loeffler reminds the reader that the Intercontinental Exchange (the parent company of Bakkt) has built exchanges built around cutting-edge technology and for nascent markets before:

“We have worked to build new markets and products many times before. Those of us building Bakkt have earned our stripes by helping advance markets in once-nascent asset classes, from energy to credit derivatives and, now, bitcoin. The path to developing new markets is rarely linear: progress tends to modulate between innovation, dismissal, reinvention, and, finally, acceptance.”

The end of Loeffler’s Medium post seems to continue this theme of reassurance to those rattled by the 80%+ drops this year. It states that never before has an emerging technology been exposed to the level of media coverage that Bitcoin and other digital assets have. The previous major innovation of the internet makes such a proliferation of publications possible for the first time. Loeffer ultimately reminds users that:

“Few innovations reach their potential in their first decade.”

Related Reading: Novogratz: Interest Left Crypto for Macro, But Bitcoin Will Emerge As Store of Value

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