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The company behind the upcoming Bakkt project has purchased a leading crypto custody company. Fortune reports that Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) bought out Digital Asset Custody Company (DACC), and it is also moving to arrange for Bakkt to be a registered trust with the state of New York.
After being announced in 2018, Bakkt has faced multiple delays, and many believe that its predicted launch at the end of this year may not come to pass. In an effort to move the process along, ICE has now taken two significant steps.
The acquisition of DACC should help improve development of the Bakkt project's custody service. Designed for institutional investors who may be wary of dealing with crypto technology directly, it should be a big rival to the service which is being rolled out by pensions giant Fidelity.
According to a statement from Bakkt, "DACC shares our security-first mindset and brings extensive experience...integrating multiple blockchains and operating cutting-edge consensus mechanisms...As we look to scale and support custody of additional digital assets, DACC’s native support of 13 blockchains and 100+ assets will serve as an important accelerator".
DACC was bought for an undisclosed fee, and it will continue to operate independently for now, retaining its CEO and all staff. In a statement, DACC claims that the acquisition will help to "broaden the impact of our work and scale our products".
Bakkt has also filed with New York's state legislature "to become a trust company and in this capacity serve as a Qualified Custodian for digital assets". This will help with the physically-delivered BTC futures that are a key part of the Bakkt project, and which recently led to further delays after objections from the CFTC.