Bakkt Warehouse launched its deposits and withdrawals for Bitcoin back on September 6th, 2019 and it has come a long way since then.
According to a recent blog post by Adam White, CEO of Bakkt, the cryptocurrency platform that is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), indicated they had secured its custody business in Bitcoin with an additional $500 million insurance policy.
The post added that the exchange is trying to make the asset accessible to more institutional investors and they have currently added 70 more clients to the Bakkt Warehouse. The post added,
“Beyond the $125M of insurance already in place at the Bakkt Warehouse, customers can now purchase more than $500M in additional insurance coverage, subject to underwriting criteria.”
In order to strengthen their rapport with the institutional customers, the exchange has also completed a SOC 1 Type I examination by KPMG and a SOC 2 Type II examination of the ICE infrastructure and enterprises. Bakkt aims to let its consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store, and spend digital assets, by connecting existing market and merchant infrastructure to the blockchain.
Additionally, the blog post also revealed a potential partnership between Bakkt and two of the largest financial institutions but the firms remained unidentified in the report.
Bakkt’s popularity has increased in 2020
From the chart above, it can be identified that the total Open Interest on Bakkt Bitcoin Futures peaked at a relatively lower level of $7.0 million and the average stood somewhere below $3.5 million in 2019. However, the interest has significantly picked up in 2020 as an all-time-high Open-Interest of $19 million was witnessed on February 19th. The average has also been high and improvement in terms of interest and customer engagement is definitely higher than the past year.
The recent announcement will only add to the current improving plot for Bakkt, as institutional capital continues to be soar in the Bitcoin industry.
Bakkt to launch BTC Crypto Mobile App
In mid-march, the exchange had also announced that they were planning to integrate the involvement of their retail investors through a Bakkt mobile application. According to White, the app would enable its users to aggregate their assets into a signal digital wallet and the application may possibly be available by the summer of 2020. His enthusiasm was highlighted in this statement,
“I’m excited at our potential to unlock nearly $1 trillion of digital assets when the Bakkt app launches this summer.”