The cryptocurrency platform Bakkt announced that it has entered into an agreement to purchase assets of Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG). RCG is an independent futures commission merchant that has been operating in the last 100 years. After the announcement made in a blog post by Kelly Loeffler, the CEO of Bakkt, Bitcoin jumped over 4%. Â
Bakkt Platform Acquires Assets of RCG
The Bakkt platform is one of the most interesting projects that the crypto market is currently waiting for. Although the company needs to wait for the approval of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), they keep working at all times.
In this blog post, Kelly Loeffler explains that the intention is to enhance risk management and treasury operations with systems and expertise. Rosenthal Collins is a firm that specializes in managing commodities accounts for investors and other institutions.
Kelly Loeffler commented about this deal during a conversation with Fortune:
“Typically when companies are combined you have overlapping systems, so we saw an opportunity to a purchase a portion of the back office operations, including compliance and treasury services, and risk management, as well as adding members of the RCG team.”
In order to achieve the goals proposed, Bakkt needs to invest in technology and enhance its platform. In this way, they will be delivering the most trusted fintech ecosystem for cryptocurrencies around the world. Furthermore, the acquisition will allow Bakt to improve is Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) procedures.
Bakkt has also raised $182 million in funding for the launching of its virtual currency platform. There were 12 different partners that invested in this company. One of the most recognized partners is Microsoft, that has shown its support to Bakkt’s proposal.
The target launch date for the Bakkt platform was set for January 24. The original date was in December 2018. Nevertheless, this date in January might be delayed as well before it receives the approval from the CFTC. It might be possible to see the product already in the market in February or March, depending on the time authorities need to approve the proposal.
During the first months of 2019, the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) should be launching an updated timeline for the rest of the year. This will allow interested investors to know when trading, clearing and warehousing of the Bitcoin daily futures contract will start.
After the announcement, Bitcoin’s price surged over 4% in just a few hours. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is traded around $3,707 and it has a market cap of $64.82 billion.
