NYSE owner buys crypto custodian in latest push to offer bitcoin

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), which owns the New York Stock Exchange, made a splash last August with big plans to get into the Bitcoin business. Those ambitions, however, have been stymied by regulatory delays, leading ICE on Monday to announce a series of measures to jumpstart its efforts.

Most notably, ICE has acquired a crypto custodian service called Digital Asset Custody Company, and arranged for its cryptocurrency subsidiary—known as Bakkt—to become a registered trust with the state of New York.

These measures are intended to clear the way for ICE to offer Bitcoin futures contracts that settle in Bitcoin rather than cash. Such contracts have yet to materialize, in large part because the Commodity Futures Trading Commission objected to an earlier plan by Bakkt to “warehouse” physical Bitcoin.