World’s 23rd Richest Man Invests in Cryptocurrency Exchange Bakkt’s First Fundin

[cybersofts]

World’s 23rd Richest Man Invests in Cryptocurrency Exchange Bakkt’s First Funding Round



Bakkt, a digital asset platform created by the Intercontinental Exchange, has completed its first funding round, securing an investment from Li Ka-shing, a renowned Hong Kong billionaire and one of the wealthiest men on the planet.


Li Ka-Shing Leads Investment Round For Bakkt
Bakkt, a cryptocurrency platform backed by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) had completed its Series A funding round on Dec. 31, 2018. Bakkt signed off more than $180 million raised, entering the new year with a bang.

The parent company of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) managed to attract heavyweight tech and venture capital investors, including Boston Consulting Group, Microsoft’s venture capital arm M12, and Naspers’ fintech company PayU, Bakkt’s Medium post revealed.

According to EJ Insight, one of the most notable investors in Bakkt was Horizons Ventures, a Hong Kong venture capital firm founded by Li Ka-shing. Ka-shing, who is the 23rd richest man in the world according to Forbes; he has been accumulating an assorted portfolio of tech startups over the last decade.

This, however, isn’t the first time Ka-shing has ventured into cryptocurrencies. In 2013, Horizons Ventures invested in BitPay, a bitcoin payment processing software, and in 2016 in Blockstream, a blockchain technology provider.


Investors Recognize Bakkt’s Potential
Bakkt’s plan to launch a digital asset platform that will host institutional-grade futures contracts for bitcoin and other cryptos seems to have resonated well with investors. Li Ka-Shing’s Horizons Ventures was joined by CMT Digital, Eagle Seven, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Pantera Capital, and Protocol Ventures, Bakkt’s CEO, Kelly Loeffler said.

Backing by some of the biggest names among institutional investors could help the cryptocurrency market gain much-needed recognition. Institutional backing could also reduce the volatility that has plagued the crypto market for years.

Physically delivered crypto futures will set Bakkt apart from the competition, as rival exchanges CME and CBOE settle their contracts in fiat. Bakkt’s contracts will also be warehoused and cleared through ICE’s US-based futures exchange and clearinghouse.

Many small time crypto traders are looking forward to the launch of Bakkt’s contracts on Jan. 24, 2019, as the initial launch was set for Nov. 2018. The company blamed regulatory setbacks for the delay, with Loeffler saying Bakkt has filed an application with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and was waiting for approval.


Reference: https://cryptoslate.com/worlds-23rd-richest-man-invests-bakkt/

[masterzino]

I read that Bakkt already collected more than 90M in the first round only from serious players and names. Still, the project is not open for small fishes like us and we could only watch will they manage to start.

If Bakkt launch their trading platform for real in next few months, it could easily lead to huge bull run.

[dothebeats]

So it seems that the upper echelons of the society are also into cryptocurrencies seeing how easy it is to get some money off of it. They also realize how big a platform Bakkt will be and they don't want to miss a slice of the cake that's being offered to them. I don't think Bakkt will ever open the door to the general public as they already are being backed by a lot of huge names in the finance world even before the platform goes live.

[enhu]

Bakkt is a serious project that they got 90M even with such market. This 23rd wealthiest man in the world has a name that sounded like a coin being dropped into a cashier's machine. Ka-ching! Li Ka-Shing. Its not surprising that someone will invest to a sure win-win project of course he wants profit too.

[BrewMaster]

So it seems that the upper echelons of the society are also into cryptocurrencies seeing how easy it is to get some money off of it. They also realize how big a platform Bakkt will be and they don't want to miss a slice of the cake that's being offered to them. I don't think Bakkt will ever open the door to the general public as they already are being backed by a lot of huge names in the finance world even before the platform goes live.

i don't think they are interested in cryptocurrencies, many of them may not even care enough to check it out to see what it is. but what they are interested in is the enthusiasm that people showed so far in investing in them based on the data gathered from exchanges. and considering it has only been from a very small portion of the society they want to expand that and make money from it.
in short they see the market is lacking a service provider and they want to make money off of that.

in any case, as long as we get some adoption out of it, i am happy.

[coinplus]

It is not a shocking thing that people want to be part of the first company that does this.
Thanks to Bakkt they will be capable of making money from the first investors and traders there. The amount of commissions they could make from this is endless and until a competition comes they are monopoly in what they do.

Who wouldn't want a part of this huge crypto monopoly company ? I mean there are still people like warren buffett who I admire and he thinks he doesn't know about bitcoin enough to invest into it, dude has been friends with bill gates for over two decades now and hasn't bought a single Microsoft share, he only invests into stuff he thinks he knows, if you are someone like that than its fine not to invest but if you know crypto even a bit (which Ka-Shing does) than you have nothing to worry about and its a great chance to be a part of it.

[bagalkot]

Even of this news their was not up movement in the market so i think Bakkt implement wont be much affecting the market until it dont start the project. But it is good to know that big names and institutions are ready to invest in cryptocurrency future projects.

[BiteMyShinyMetalAss]

So one thing is for sure, that BAKKT is coming, nobody would invest so much money if they didnt know its going to be approved.
In contrast to ETF, which most likely will be denied.

[mahilchii]

I read that Bakkt already collected more than 90M in the first round only from serious players and names. Still, the project is not open for small fishes like us and we could only watch will they manage to start.

If Bakkt launch their trading platform for real in next few months, it could easily lead to huge bull run.

90M in the first round? That's a big number. There were lot of speculations on the bakkt trading platform launch like the price will pump for sure but what we are seeing here is something disgusting.

However I believe once they launch it officially there are lot of possibilities for a big pump in the market.

[hugeblack]

Bakkt, Coinbase, Binance, and other serious projects investments will be a dumps containing thousands of Bitcoins and if continued to dominate them, we may see some centralization of many cryptocurrencies.
Given the extent of investment, the crypto market will lose many advantages of decentralization at the expense of higher prices and more legislative laws.
It's a good move in the short term but it's better to have a lot of strong currency holdings and not some central institutions.

[Lucius]

I read that Bakkt already collected more than 90M in the first round...

Bakkt is a serious project that they got 90M even with such market.

90M in the first round? That's a big number.

This is just another proof that people do not read even a first post, if you do then you will realize that it is not 90$ million, but 180$ million in first round. However in terms of cryptocurrency total market value this is not big money, we should talk about billions $ if something can be changed to the better.

Bakkt is maybe a good project, but for now almost no one (except for those who have invested money), is not overly interested for this, especially if we look from perspective of today's prices.

Now is the question of whether this project can bring something to us as ordinary users, or this will be something which will make the rich even richer and for the rest, only crumbs will remain?

[stompix]

So it seems that the upper echelons of the society are also into cryptocurrencies seeing how easy it is to get some money off of it. They also realize how big a platform Bakkt will be and they don't want to miss a slice of the cake that's being offered to them.

They are into earning fees from people that want to become rich in a day of trading.
I'm willing to bet none for them will invest more than a few $ into coins and that only to have material for a tweet or an Instagram photo to brag about how cool they are. Investors don't care about the product, they care only how much money that product is going to give them, they could turn from vegans to fast food lovers in a matter of seconds if the price is right.

I don't think Bakkt will ever open the door to the general public as they already are being backed by a lot of huge names in the finance world even before the platform goes live.

And what might be worse people will start caring about the numbers there like they trust the current bs from CMC.
I just hope that this won't follow the same path where every "big thing" happening managed to *** everything.

[Adriano2010]

This is good news, i hope that sooner we will have a nice grow in price reflected for all legit crypto coins and why not get a nice profit for who bought on low. I hope that Bakkt will help crypto in future and make a big price, a new ATH for bitcoin.