Editor's Note: This article comes fromCarbon chain value (ID: cc-value)At the Bakkt Digital Asset Summit held on the New York Stock Exchange last week, more than 150 investors around the world reached a consensus: there are already many institutional investors and venture capitalists who are ready to bring traditional assets into the world of cryptocurrencies.

At the Bakkt Digital Asset Summit held on the New York Stock Exchange last week, more than 150 investors around the world reached a consensus: there are already many institutional investors and venture capitalists who are ready to bring traditional assets into the world of cryptocurrencies.

This consensus is also the reason why the world's top investment institutions such as Horizons Investment are betting on Bakkt. They are betting on the next era of the NYSE.

"I have looked up and down the blockchain industry, and now it seems that there is no place suitable for ordinary people to start a business and can clearly see the profit point." A friend said today.

The current cryptocurrency market is a market that is aroused by "compliance". On the one hand, Tether is about to conduct a hearing, and BitMEX, the largest futures exchange in digital assets, will be investigated; on the other hand, ErisX and LedgerX have obtained licenses issued by the CFTC, and Seed CX has obtained a license from NYDFS. Every piece of news related to compliance will be interpreted by the market. At the same time, compliance and licenses indicate that the industry is moving from extensive to mature.

Is the market taking a fancy to this industry? No, this industry has no shortage of competitors from traditional fields, and there is no shortage of rookies entering the market. Then the reasonable explanation is that they have taken a fancy to the market potential under "compliance".

The current cryptocurrency market is a market that is aroused by "compliance". On the one hand, Tether is about to conduct a hearing, and BitMEX, the largest futures exchange in digital assets, will be investigated; on the other hand, ErisX and LedgerX have obtained licenses issued by the CFTC, and Seed CX has obtained a license from NYDFS. Every piece of news related to compliance will be interpreted by the market. At the same time, compliance and licenses indicate that the industry is moving from extensive to mature.

Based on this, we need to have a good understanding of Bakkt, which may become the "Cryptocurrency New York Stock Exchange".

In August 2018, Intercontinental Exchange Group (ICE), the parent company of the NYSE, launched a new company called Bakkt. Bakkt will use Microsoft's cloud solutions to create an open and regulated global ecosystem for digital assets, where consumers and institutions can seamlessly buy, sell, store and use digital assets. Its first batch of partners included well-known companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boston Consulting.

Looking back, it seems like a historical necessity that ICE chose to establish its subsidiary Bakkt at that point in time. August 2018 is the eighth month since the digital currency came down from the highest point, and it is also the four months before the digital currency reached the freezing point (December 2018). Countless people get on and off the bus on the way from the highest point to the lowest point, and big business is no exception — and they too are keeping an eye on the cryptocurrency market, ready to bet on the future.

As the son of Intercontinental Exchange Group, Bakkt was born with the blood of capital. The first round of financing of US$182.5 million came from 12 institutional and individual investors: Boston Consulting Group, Li Ka-shing’s Horizons Investment, the FinTech department of the South African Press Group, and Protocol Ventures, Microsoft Ventures M12, Goldman Sachs Galaxy Digital, ICE, CMT Digital, Eagle Seven, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Pantera Capital, PayU.

You should know that Horizons Investment is an investor in famous technology companies such as Skype, Siri, Zoom, and Facebook (invested 120 million US dollars in Facebook in 2007); South African Press Group is the largest shareholder of Tencent. Galaxy Digital and Pantera are the top investment institutions in the cryptocurrency circle. It can be said that Bakkt's investors have gathered the world's top investment resources.

Bakkt Management List

From the background of luxurious shareholders, we may not know the importance of Bakkt. Let's turn our eyes to its interior.

In terms of staffing, ICE has given its subsidiary Bakkt super-standard treatment. Bakkt's CEO Kelly Loeffler is privately the wife of ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher, and Yu is a veteran ICE employee who participated in the acquisition of the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange and ICE's initial public offering.

In addition to the CEO, the management team is also rich in industry experience and has a glamorous resume.

Adam White: Adam White joined Coinbase in 2013 as vice president and general manager. He is the fifth employee and the highest-level manager of Coinbase, mainly responsible for business development and product management.

After Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong learned that Adam was leaving, he said: "Over the past five years, Adam has helped us build our exchange business into the largest crypto trading venue in the United States and continue to grow Coinbase's global presence and extend our culture across multiple offices."

Matthew Johnson: Matthew is a board member of Digital Asset Research and an operating partner of LabCo NYC. Of course, his most important role is the co-founder and chief product officer of Digital Asset Custody Company (DACC). DACC, a digital asset custody service provider, was acquired by Bakkt on April 29, 2019, and Matthew Johnson became Bakkt's vice president of blockchain engineering.

Rich Mackey: Before entering Bakkt, Rich served as Deputy President (Deputy President) at Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), an independent futures broker founded in 1923. In 2018, when Marex Spectron acquired RCG, Bakkt also acquired some assets of RCG, including Rich Mackey. During his career Rich has served as President of RGS, an RCG subsidiary, Senior Vice President of Risk, Executive Vice President of Strategy, and Vice President of RCG. Rich Mackey will serve as President at Bakkt and is one of the most suitable candidates for the position.

Matthew Johnson: Matthew is a board member of Digital Asset Research and an operating partner of LabCo NYC. Of course, his most important role is the co-founder and chief product officer of Digital Asset Custody Company (DACC). DACC, a digital asset custody service provider, was acquired by Bakkt on April 29, 2019, and Matthew Johnson became Bakkt's vice president of blockchain engineering.

Cryptocurrency is just a nascent industry. And with such a huge business, why does Intercontinental Exchange give the newborn Bakkt such high-standard staffing?

In terms of benefits, digital currency exchanges can be said to be making money day by day. The trading volume of the spot digital currency exchange Binance in May and June 2019 was about 125 billion U.S. dollars, and the net profit in the second quarter may reach 150 million U.S. dollars. The futures digital currency exchange BitMEX has an annual turnover of more than US$1 trillion. Based on the minimum 0.25% handling fee, the annual revenue will also reach US$2.5 billion.

From the perspective of ICE, Bakkt has two strategic significances.

The most important point is to lay out the digital currency industry and compete directly with other traditional financial institutions. CBOE (Chicago Options Exchange) launched Bitcoin futures trading on December 11, 2017, and CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) also launched futures trading accordingly in the following week. CME and COBE can be said to be ICE's powerful competitors in the traditional industry, and now they have a head start. For ICE, Bakkt is a business that has to be launched. Even if Bakkt does not make money, ICE needs such a slot.

The most important point is to lay out the digital currency industry and compete directly with other traditional financial institutions. CBOE (Chicago Options Exchange) launched Bitcoin futures trading on December 11, 2017, and CME (Chicago Mercantile Exchange) also launched futures trading accordingly in the following week. CME and COBE can be said to be ICE's powerful competitors in the traditional industry, and now they have a head start. For ICE, Bakkt is a business that has to be launched. Even if Bakkt does not make money, ICE needs such a slot.

This is enough to show that digital currency futures exchanges established by traditional financial institutions can gain the trust of institutional investors, which is undoubtedly a promising track.

This consensus is also the reason why the world's top investment institutions such as Horizons Investment are betting on Bakkt. They are betting on the next era of the NYSE.

This consensus is also the reason why the world's top investment institutions such as Horizons Investment are betting on Bakkt. They are betting on the next era of the NYSE.

The second point of strategic significance is to use Bakkt as a single entity to compete with digital currency exchanges such as ErisX, LedgerX, and Seed CX. Unlike CBOE and ICE, which competed in person, ICE chose to participate through a subsidiary.

CME and CBOE futures will be settled in U.S. dollars, while Bakkt will be settled in bitcoin. It can be considered that the Bitcoin futures launched by CME and CBOE are arbitrage and hedging tools, and have little impact on the Bitcoin spot market. The futures adopted by Bakkt are settled with Bitcoin, which will have a greater impact on the spot market. There is an expectation of rising demand for Bitcoin spot, which is one of the reasons why Bakkt is considered positive by many.

Bakkt is not alone, and its competitors on digital currency exchanges are not small.

ErisX: ErisX obtained the DCM license in 2011, and obtained the CFTC (Commodity Futures Trading Commission) derivatives clearing agency license (DCO) on July 1, 2019, and can trade Bitcoin futures. The shareholders of ErisX are not smaller than Bakkt, including CBOE, Bitmain, Fidelity Investments, Nasdaq Venture Capital, Monex Group and Pentera Capital. On July 18, ErisX joined the Chamber of Digital Commerce, a political lobbying organization whose members include R3 Alliance, Fidelity Investments, Fidelity Investments and other heavyweights.

LedgerX: LadgerX was approved by CFTC on June 25, 2019 to conduct Bitcoin futures settlement (DCM, contract market). Prior to this, LadgerX had obtained Swap Execution Agency (SEF) and Derivatives Clearing Organization (DCO) registrations. On May 22, 2017, LedgerX received US$11.4 million in Series B financing from Digital Finance Group and Miami International Holdings. Shareholders also include Hard Yaka, SV Angel, Blockchain Capital.

Seed CX: Seed Digital Commodities Market and Zero Hash, two subsidiaries of Seed CX, obtained the virtual currency license (BitLicense) issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on July 15, 2019. Seed CX raised $15 million in 2018 led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Futures transactions with physical delivery generally involve three parts: "custody", "trading", and "clearing". With a DCO license, you can carry out custody business, and with a DCM license, you can carry out liquidation business. Bakkt itself has neither a DCO license nor a DCM license, so it acquired DACC with a DCO license in 2018. However, DCM is the most important license for Bakkt to use physical delivery.

Seed CX: Seed Digital Commodities Market and Zero Hash, two subsidiaries of Seed CX, obtained the virtual currency license (BitLicense) issued by the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on July 15, 2019. Seed CX raised $15 million in 2018 led by Bain Capital Ventures.

Futures transactions with physical delivery generally involve three parts: "custody", "trading", and "clearing". With a DCO license, you can carry out custody business, and with a DCM license, you can carry out liquidation business. Bakkt itself has neither a DCO license nor a DCM license, so it acquired DACC with a DCO license in 2018. However, DCM is the most important license for Bakkt to use physical delivery.

Bakkt has also tried to become a legal digital asset custodian by applying for a license from the New York Department of Financial Services like Seed CX. But as of now, it has not yet obtained this license.