Bakkt Stretches Compliance, Risk Mgt & Treasury Operations Scope with its First Acquisition

Fresh from accomplishing its maiden funding round, Bakkt declared its first acquisition on January 14. The daughter firm of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) is also considering the feasibility of expanding beyond the U.S. market.

Bakkt, the digital assets platform backed by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced the news of the acquisition through the Medium news platform with a post by CEO Kelly Loeffler. According to the blog post, the firm is getting some of the assets of Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG), a long-standing autonomous futures commission merchant. 

Overlapping Systems 

According to CEO Loeffler, the deal must be completed by next month. In December last year, Marex Spectron, the Commodity Brokerage company got RCG’s client business. Kelly reveals the deal with RCG is for buying of assets colligated to its platform. 

In an interview, Loeffler revealed: 

“Typically when firms 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, and  adding members of the RCG team.” 

The Bakkt CEO while talking about the advantages of the acquisition, revealed that it improved the platform’s expertise in risk management & treasury activities. 

“Other aspects of the transaction will bestow to our regulatory, AML, KYC and customer service operations as we help endow crypto acceptance by bringing more varieties and control to buyers & sellers.” 

In addition, it will greatly contribute to Bakkt’s regulatory requirements with policies such as Know-Your-Customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML). 

To achieve the previously specified goal, CEO Loeffler takes a firm stand that the acquisition isn’t just about institutional requirements alone. The effort also has vast importance and benefits for consumer business. 

Bear Markets not a Problem 

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is almost certain to sanction Bakkt to commence trading its BTC futures. Nevertheless, Kelly reveals the firm isn’t holding on for approval as the group proceeds working behind the scene. 

However, the firm collected approx. $182.5 million in its first funding round from outstanding investors such as Microsoft at the end of 2019. 

Bakkt is purportedly considering making initial steps to markets beyond the U.S., as it waits for CFTC approval. Kelly said the platform is engaging with other foreign regulatory agencies. 

However, the firm repeats that the present market conditions are not affecting its plans in a negative way. Kelly said:  

“People focus narrowly on BTC’s price, but blockchain tech and crypto keep advancing. BTC certainly needs a hike; Bakkt could very well help give it.”