Bakkt raises $183 million in first round of funding for crypto exchange
Cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt completes first round of funding.
According to the CEO of Bakkt, Kelly Loeffler, roughly $183 million has been raised in the first round of funding of the cryptocurrency exchange and liquidity provider.
Bakkt is expected to be the gateway for institutional clients into the crypto ecosystem as it will be the industry’s first institutional grade regulated exchange.
Bakkt will also feature clearing and warehousing services for physical delivery and storage set to cater to institutional clients.
Some specifics:
The funding round was primarily made up of 14 investors.
The investors include:
- Boston Consulting Group
- CMT Digital
- Eagle Seven
- Galaxy Digital
- Goldfinch Partners
- Alan Howard
- Horizons Ventures
- Intercontinental Exchange
- Microsoft’s venture capital arm
- M12
- Pantera Capital
- PayU
- Fintech arm of Naspers
- Protocol Ventures.
(Source: https://medium.com/bakkt-blog/first-capital-raise-739db1bab6d3)
Combined, they were able to raise $182.5 million.
When will they launch?
According to the CEO the official launch date is now up the to regulatory approval process.
The first projection was for December of 2018.
That was subsequently pushed back to January 24th of 2019.
They have completed and filed all the necessary paperwork and are now waiting on regulatory approval.
Bakkt said that they worked with the CFTC through much of 2018 in order to ensure that they create a compliant exchange and expect approval shortly.
On a positive note, customers have continued to be on-boarded as they wait to be green-lighted by regulators.
I expect this to be very good news for bitcoin and crypto prices when it eventually launches.
Some reasons why it will be good can be found here:
Stay informed my friends.
Follow me: @jrcornel
Bakkt is coming ... sooner or later.
I hope so. Sooner would be nice.
Nice pedigree 👍🧐👍
I think so as well. Bakkt is going to be a game changer when they launch... legitimize the entire industry.
Wow PayU is a funder thats the fintech arm of Naspers, very interesting Naspers doesn’t bet on anything that’s not a sure winner! That is some funding round I mean some of the biggest tech companies we use daily didn’t have that kind of funding through multiple rounds never mind a single round! I’ll be watching bakkt more closely
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Yes, Bakkt is a very big deal. Possibly the biggest deal in crypto right now. Just need it to launch.
Great news and what a bunch of intelligent investors 🙏🙏
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Time will tell for them.
This is something that will be huge. :)
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Yep, I think so as well. Just needs to launch.
I am hoping that when they mention customers, they mean merchants getting ready to accept bitcoin!
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They mentioned customers and liquidity providers, which are both very good things. We need a change in tax laws before bitcoin/crypto can really be widely used for payments.
This is exciting to see thanks for the information. Happy New Years 🥳
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You as well, thanks.
I think it got postponed again..
Sort of. They haven't heard back yet and the government shut down may be affecting things. Likely it won't launch by January 24th, but it could still launch sometime around there. We will see.
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Bakkt is going to be rocking when it will start right now the delays keep going on
Wishing you a very happy new year 2019 (^_^)