Bitcoin Futures Exchange Bakkt Raises $182.5 Million from BCG, Microsoft, Pantera Capital, and Others

Bitcoin enthusiasts are off to a promising start for 2019 as Bakkt announces the completion of a $182.5 million funding round from a host of influential venture capital funds.

Bakkt was launched by the Intercontinental Exchange, the parent firm of the New York Stock Exchange, along with several other influential derivatives and futures bourses to satisfy the institutional interest in cryptocurrencies.

Bakkt aims to become a trusted gateway for trading bitcoin-focused financial products.

Apart from price speculation, ICE is also looking to facilitate the use of bitcoin in everyday payments and cross-border money transfers.

Initially expected to launch in November 2018, Bakkt's operations were postponed to start in December 2018, and then again to "Early 2019" on the count of necessary permissions from regulators such as the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission.

Unlike most crypto-firms, Bakkt did not offer a tokens sale to raise funds.

Instead, it followed the traditional venture capital approach with investors bidding their positions in exchange for equity in the business.

Bakkt's "Killer app" is bitcoin contracts delivered within one day.

Bakkt offers a 'physical' warehousing option for cold storage, rather than having private keys stored in an exchange cloud server, which tend to have non-transparent security standards.

The project is led by Kelly Loeffler, the former head of communications and marketing at ICE. Under her purview, Bakkt has finalized deals with Microsoft for their cloud services, and Starbucks to enable real-time conversion of bitcoin-allowing for in-store coffee purchases.