Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), has obtained a licence from the New York State Department of Financial Services (DFS) to serve as a limited liability trust company.

The move enables Bakkt to offer custody services for Bitcoin and launch physically delivered Bitcoin futures contracts.

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The futures contracts will be on a daily and monthly basis.

Bakkt COO Adam White said: “With the comprehensive regulatory review and approval of Bakkt Trust Company complete, we are pleased to serve as a qualified custodian of bitcoin for physically delivered futures.

“We appreciate the work that the DFS has undertaken to bring a standardised regulatory framework to digital assets, particularly in the area of secure custody.

“This now enables us to offer institutional-grade custody via the Bakkt Warehouse alongside the federally regulated Bakkttm Bitcoin Futures contracts.”

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The Bitcoin futures contracts are scheduled to launch on 23 September 2019.

The contracts will be listed for trading on ICE Futures US. They will be cleared via ICE Clear US.

Bakkt said in a blog post: “Uniquely, Bakkt bitcoin futures contracts will not rely upon unregulated spot markets for settlement prices, thus serving as a transparent price discovery mechanism for the benchmark price for bitcoin.

“The importance of this differentiator is only amplified by reports of significant manipulative spot market activity, and other concerns such as inconsistent anti-money-laundering policies and weak compliance controls.”