Bakkt Shifts Focus Back to Digital Asset Custody, Adds Support for Six New Coins
Bakkt, the U.S.-based digital asset custody provider owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has shifted its focus back towards digital asset custody and has added support for six new coins.
The digital asset custody provider announced today that it had begun accepting deposits for six different tokens on their platform, including Cardano’s ADA, Ethereum Classic’s ETC, Algorand’s ALGO, Basic Attention Token’s BAT, Stellar Lumens’ XLM, and 0x’s ZRX.
Bakkt previously made headlines in the cryptocurrency space shortly after launching its monthly futures contracts in September 2019. The platform started off with just Bitcoin futures contracts but eventually added options for its users to purchase contracts for Bitcoin options and physically settled Bitcoin futures contracts.
However, the platform failed to make much progress after that, even though it recently announced that it would allow institutional customers to hold their funds in digital asset warehouses like Carpe Diem Funds and other qualified custodians.
With the announcement today, it appears that Bakkt is shifting its focus back to its original goal of providing digital asset custody services. Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael expressed enthusiasm about the development, stating that the platform is taking steps toward its “long-term vision of enabling institutions and consumers to securely store, transact and issue digital assets.”
By allowing deposits for a variety of coins, Bakkt is taking a major step toward expanding its services and addressing customer demands. With the support of six new digital assets, Bakkt’s digital asset custody platform can now accommodate a wider variety of institutional customers.
The move will also help Bakkt stand out from the competition, as it is now the only digital asset custody service that can accommodate a variety of coins. This could be extremely beneficial for the platform, as more institutional clients may be persuaded to join the platform given the wide range of support available.
It remains to be seen, however, if Bakkt can continue to differentiate itself from the competition and whether or not its customers will actually switch from existing providers. Nonetheless, it is clear that Bakkt is taking steps to make its platform more attractive to institutional clients. And with the addition of support for six new digital assets, Bakkt is well-positioned to capitalize on the growth of the digital asset landscape.
