Those closely following the upcoming cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt will know that recent reports indicated that the Intercontinental Exchange-backed venture had hired Coinbase’s ex-vice president Adam White for the role of chief operating officer.

Adam White has been described as an integral part of Coinbase’s growth, as he was the fifth person to ever join the now-giant cryptocurrency colossus, sporting approximately 25 million customers.

Furthermore, Bakkt has extensive ties to various Wall Street institutions, due to the fact that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) operates 12 different regulated exchanges and marketplaces, including the New York Stock Exchange.

Bakkt’s CEO Kelly Loeffler officially announced that Adam White was joining Bakkt on October 15th with a Medium post. Perhaps even more notably, a fresh Fortune report discussing White’s transition to Bakkt saw Loeffler make some decidedly bullish statements on cryptocurrencies.

Loeffler partly compared cryptocurrencies to the state of the splintered energy markets prevalent during the early 2000s, stating that ICE was responsible for introducing the notion of trading energy to institutions.

Moreover, she explained that this push was what facilitated today’s liquid energy markets.

”We’re about to see a revolution on the same scale in cryptocurrencies”, Loeffler said, indicating that the cryptocurrency market may be about to experience a similar development as the energy market has.

The Fortune piece also noted that Loeffler believes Bakkt will offer regulated trading, custody and clearing to institutions come this December. Moreover, this ”package deal” is also said to be offered on the ICE Futures US commodities exchange – which is subject to approval by the US CFTC.

The ultimate hope is that Bakkt could potentially facilitate cryptocurrency trading for Wall Street firms in a way that is just as easy as trading traditional stocks, bonds or commodities.

However, Bakkt is not the only actor gunning for the potentially lucrative institutional market.

Coinbase has been expanding rapidly during the past year, and recently announced that it would establish a new office in Dublin, in addition to its existing London office – a move which is thought to be a way to more easily access the EU market following Brexit.

Furthermore, Toshi Times recently reported that Fidelity Investments, one of the world’s largest financial service providers, had announced that they will launch a new company – Fidelity Digital Assets – that is going to offer cryptocurrency trading services to institutions and hedge funds.

Image Source: “Flickr”