ICE's Bakkt, which has faced regulatory delays, says it has acquired the Digital Asset Custody Company and has applied with NY to become a registered trust
Setting a new standard for securely storing digital assets Osato Avan-Nomayo / Bitcoinist.com : NYSE Owner Seeking Bitcoin Custody ‘NY Trust’ License Celia Wan / The Block : Bakkt acquires custodian DACC as it builds out its own solution for storing cryptocurrencies William M. Peaster / Blockonomi : NYSE Backers ICE Acquire Crypto Custody Play to Boost Bakkt's Future Steve Kaaru / CoinGeek : Bakkt acquires crypto custody startup as it awaits regulatory approval Bhushan Akolkar / Coinspeaker : ICE's Crypto Startup Bakkt Acquires Digital Asset Custodian, Join Hands With BNY Mellon Helen Partz / Cointelegraph : US-Based Exchange ErisX Officially Announces Public Launch of Spot Market Matthew Johnson / Medium : A Letter from our Founders: We're becoming part of Bakkt! The Daily Hodl : Bitcoin Platform Bakkt Acquires Crypto Custodian, Bank of England Champions Digital Economy … Jalen Fargharson / Crypto Briefing : Bakkt Acquires New Crypto Custody Service DACC Tweets: @bakkt : Having worked in the crypto space developing advanced trading and custody solutions since 2013, it's clear to our COO @WhiteAdamL that ironclad infrastructure and a security-first mindset are fundamental to storing digital assets http://medium.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Bakkt's path to market has been defined by waiting on New York regulators, so buying the Digital Asset Custody Company is a way to build the storage layer in-house while its trust-charter application sits pending. The move sets up the infrastructure behind its planned physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts, which need regulated custody before they can settle.
In hindsight this acquisition was the first brick in a vertical stack: the trust application cleared that fall, letting Bakkt launch its institutional custody business after NY approval, and the company later added trading infrastructure through its ~$155M Apex Crypto acquisition. Yet by 2024 the same company issued a going-concern warning and explored a sale — making this 2019 deal the start of an integration story whose payoff never fully materialized.
First-order effects
- Bakkt gains owned custody technology instead of depending on a third-party custodian, closing the biggest infrastructure gap while its New York trust application is under review.
- ICE gets a self-contained pipeline for its planned physically-settled bitcoin futures: exchange, clearing, and now storage under one roof.
Second-order effects
- Owning custody lets Bakkt bundle storage with its futures contracts, pressuring rival venues to either buy custodians or partner with qualified ones to offer comparable physical settlement.
- A successful NY trust charter would make Bakkt a licensed custodian competing directly with established qualified custodians for institutional client assets.
Third-order effects
- The deal previews the industry-standard playbook of exchanges vertically integrating custody through acquisition plus state trust charters — a structure Bakkt extended with Apex Crypto in 2023.
- That same arc ending in a 2024 going-concern warning and sale exploration shows vertical integration alone does not guarantee durable economics; ownership of the full stack did not shield Bakkt from demand-side weakness.
The trend: Crypto exchanges are consolidating the trade-to-storage chain in-house through custody acquisitions and New York trust charters, though Bakkt's later trajectory shows the integrated stack does not by itself secure the business.