Cryptocurrency startup Bakkt LLC., the brainchild of New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc., today said it has raised $182.5 million in its first round of funding.

Investors include Boston Consulting Group, CMT Digital, Eagle Seven, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Microsoft’s M12, Pantera Capital, PayU, Naspers, Protocol Ventures and naturally Intercontinental Exchange itself.

With the closure of the round, Baakt has disclosed more information about its plans for the future. Although Bakkt was previously reported to be building a bitcoin-settled futures contract service — a feature it’s still building — surprisingly Bakkt is offering a far broader range of services that will pit it directly against existing consumer- and merchant-oriented cryptocurrency businesses.

“Bakkt is designed to enable consumers and institutions to seamlessly buy, sell, store and spend digital assets,” the company says on its website. “Formed with the purpose of bringing trust, efficiency and commerce to digital assets, Bakkt seeks to develop open technology to connect existing market and merchant infrastructure to the blockchain.”

The word used by Bakkt is platform and it’s a seemingly accurate description of what now appears to be a one-stop shop of cryptocurrency services.

Details of just how wide and deep the company is going are not detailed, but in relation to merchant services at least, Bakkt claims that it’s collaborating with companies such as Starbucks Corp. Whether that means people will soon be buying frappuccinos using bitcoin or another cryptocurrency isn’t clear, but the relationship would suggest the possibility.

On the bitcoin futures front, Bakkt is still be struggling to obtain regulatory approval. In a separate notice posted today, ICE said that it has delayed an expected launch of the product from its originally scheduled date.

“Following consultation with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, ICE Futures U.S. Inc. expects to provide an updated launch timeline in early 2019, for the trading, clearing and warehousing of the Bakkt Bitcoin (USD) Daily Futures Contract,” the notice reads. “The launch had previously been set for January 24, 2019, but will be amended pursuant to the CFTC’s process and timeline.”

Image: Bakkt