Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt has been in the news more and more as they’re ramping up for their launch, which is said to be happening in November, next month. Bakkt made headlines back in August when the company was announced for a couple of reasons, one being that their parent company was Intercontinental Exchange, but also that they were building towards a global market with Starbucks, Microsoft, and some others to buy, sell and trade cryptocurrency.
The big news this week was that Bakkt recruited Coinbase’s long-standing employee: Adam White. Adam White will be Bakkt’s Chief Operating Officer says Bakkt’s CEO, Kelly Loeffler. Bakkt has currently been competing with Coinbase for the attention of institutional investors (such as banks, or other large organizations).
“The interest in Bitcoin and other currencies started changing from retail to the institutional side. However, the level of infrastructure of the existing trading sites often didn’t meet their expectations. That’s why they’re waiting on the sidelines.”
To read more of Fortune.com’s article
http://fortune.com/2018/10/15/cryptocurrency-coinbase-bakkt-adam-white
Bakkt seems to be confident that they will be able to get the institutional investors in the game. Kelly Loeffler said in a different report that the cryptocurrency market is similar to the energy market in the early 2000’s and that it was ICE (Intercontinental Exchange) that got institutional investors to trade in energy and that they can do the same for the cryptocurrency market.
Coinbase has also been trying to get institutional exchanges involved, and it seems to be a growing competition between the two at the moment. However, with ICE being the parent company of Bakkt, as well as Bakkt is expected to have federally regulated markets, it seems Bakkt might have a leg up in the race. ICE's tweet about Bakkt having federally regulated markets can be found here https://twitter.com/ICE_Markets/status/1052966514616389640
As the date of Bakkt’s launch gets closer, more announcements are expected, but it won’t be until they launch that we will see how much impact they actually have on the market, and how much they might be able to get institutional investors in the game.