A new Bitcoin (BTC) scam website representing digital assets platform Bakkt has appeared on the internet, with its domain “bakktplatform.io” registered on Jan. 31. The fake Bakkt website claims that the launch of the platform will take place on March 12, also offering investors a chance to participate in another funding round, accepting “investments” in Bitcoin. Citing official data from the genuine Bakkt blog, the fake website mentions that the upcoming digital asset platform had raised $182.5 million in the end of 2018, and announced a second investment round for “all interested investors who believe in the future of the …

Bakkt, the cryptocurrency platform created by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), announced that they are hiring for a number of high-up positions in a tweet Jan. 22. The Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) much-awaited crypto platform published a list of eight evidently new vacancies at the company, all of which are based in Atlanta and New York City. Some of the positions also have Hong Kong, Tokyo, San Francisco, London, Tel Aviv and Singapore listed as available locations. The page specifies that the company is mostly trying to hire a number of developers, mostly at director and senior …

Top Stories This Week Ethereum’s Constantinople Hard Fork Delayed Until February After Vulnerability Found Ethereum’s (ETH) Constantinople hard fork has been delayed until late February after smart contract audit firm ChainSecurity found a security vulnerability allowing a reentrancy attack. The security bug found would potentially let an attacker steal crypto from a smart contract on the network while requesting funds from it repeatedly while feeding it false data. In the aftermath of the discovery, Ethereum developers said that the activation would instead take place at block number 7,280.000, which is expected to be mined on Feb. 27, 2019, instead of …

Top Stories This Week Georgia State Senator Reports to Jail Over Alleged Theft of Crypto Mining Equipment Republican state senator of Georgia has reported to jail in the United States for allegedly lying about the theft of cryptocurrency mining equipment worth around $300,000. State senator Michael Williams had disclosed the theft in May, and is reporting to jail now over his false police reports and statement. Williams had declared that a server that was used to mine unnamed cryptocurrencies had disappeared from his office premises, but last month was indicted by grand jury on three counts. NYSE Operator’s Bakkt Announces …

The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced an update on the launch of the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract in an official notice Dec. 31. The document from ICE — the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and creator of digital assets platform Bakkt — states that “[f]ollowing consultation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission [CFTC], ICE Futures U.S., Inc. expects to provide an updated launch timeline in early 2019 for the trading, clearing and warehousing” of Bakkt’s Bitcoin (BTC) futures contract. The document reiterated that previously the firm had been targeting Jan. 24, 2019 as a launch date, …

Digital assets platform Bakkt — created by the operator of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) — has announced the completion of its first funding round in a blog post today, Dec. 31. The institutional investor-focused cryptocurrency platform from the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has officially raised $182.5 million from 12 partners and investors, according to the post. The partners and investors reportedly include major names in both traditional finance and crypto-oriented investing, including ICE, Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Microsoft’s venture capital arm and Pantera Capital. Bakkt also noted in the announcement that the …

New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) chairman Jeffrey Sprecher expressed optimism about the survival of digital currencies as an asset class, business news outlet Barron’s reported Nov. 27. Speaking at the Consensus Invest conference, Sprecher — who is also the CEO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) — said that when he saw headlines asking “Will digital assets survive?,” he would say that “the unequivocal answer is yes.” “We’re kind of agnostic to price,” Sprecher added. On stage at the Consensus Invest event in New York, Sprecher was accompanied by his wife and the CEO of cryptocurrency platform Bakkt, Kelly Loeffler. Bakkt is …

The Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) Bakkt cryptocurrency platform could get approval to launch its physically-delivered Bitcoin (BTC) futures product from U.S. regulators next week, an unconfirmed anonymous source told tech outlet The Block Thursday, Oct. 25. Bakkt, which seeks to create a “regulated ecosystem” for institutional investors looking to gain exposure to cryptocurrency, had previously confirmed it planned to launch its futures product Dec. 12. Should regulators give the project the green light, ICE’s Bakkt will begin launching its Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract for clients as soon as the first week of next month, according to an unnamed source “with …