A Reuters report is now revealing that Intercontinental Exchange Inc (ICE) was seemingly quite pleased with the past cryptocurrency winter. ICE’s CEO disclosed that it allowed the firm’s institutional cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt to buy cryptocurrencies at a significant markdown.

This allowed ICE to purchase cryptocurrencies at a discount

As of the time of writing, Bitcoin is holding strong, trading at a price of $5,588. Moreover, a flurry of reports during the last few weeks indicate that the cryptocurrency winter has finally passed.

Although investors, in general, have been quite wary of the past cryptocurrency winter, those who managed to play it cool and take advantage of the low associated cryptocurrency prices to continue investing are now reaping the rewards.

The NYSE-owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc, better known as ICE, was apparently one of these actors. ICE’s CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, recently appeared in a Reuters report and revealed that ICE had seized on these opportunities.

Specifically, ICE is said to have acquired cryptocurrency assets for its upcoming institutional cryptocurrency trading platform, Bakkt, for a substantial discount due to investing during the height of the bear market.

Sprecher: Crypto winter has ”really been helpful”



”It’s really been helpful that the cryptocurrency industry sort of went into what they call a winter,” Jeffrey Sprecher recently told analysts in a call. Furthermore, this came as ICE reported stronger-than-expected financial results for the first quarter of 2019.

In December of 2018, the latest bear market reached new lows for 2018, with Bitcoin at one point trading below the $3,200 level. Nevertheless, the premier cryptocurrency has since recovered, surging more than 70% in the past few months.

Jeffrey Sprecher also highlighted that the downturn in the cryptocurrency market gave ICE some breathing room in developing Bakkt.

Bakkt, which is aimed at institutional investors, has been under development for the past two years. The platform was initially slated for release in January of 2019, but has since been delayed in order to accommodate consultations with the US CFTC.

Crypto winter gave breathing room for attracting talent and building out Bakkt



Delaying Bakkt would have been significantly harder if the firm was pressured by a raging bull market, according to Sprecher. ”That [the cryptocurrency winter] took some of the heat off of the timetable to launch,” he noted.

Bakkt is currently expected to launch later in 2019, according to comments by Sprecher during an earnings call this February. What’s more, Sprecher also highlighted that this breathing room has allowed the company to attract additional talent and focus on building out Bakkt.

”We’ve actually looked at a number of different companies and acquired a company earlier this week that wouldn’t have been available to us if the market had been really hot.”

The company mentioned by Sprecher is the cryptocurrency custody firm Digital Asset Custody, which was officially acquired this past Monday.