Bitcoin Futures Bakkt Being Impersonated For Money
Someone is reportedly impersonating the much-awaited Bitcoin Futures Trading platform called Bakkt. According to the official report, this is being done in hopes of bilking people out of their BTC.
Questionable Email
The incident happened on Wednesday night, when certain news (circulating via email) suggested that the aforementioned platform was expected to launch on March 12. It was further stated that the company itself would want to raise roughly $50 million, which could be done in the second round financing. After that, readers are redirected to a false website.
Not only was the email sent from a Gmail address, but the English language used was also pretty much broken. On the said site, prospective investors would receive an invite to register using their name and email address. After the process, they would be presented with a supposed Bitcoin address where they could send money and, at the same time, asked about providing their own address in order to receive their so-called “profits” from the investment.
Apparently, the following morning, no funds are said to have been forwarded to the wallet. Plus, the domain just got registered a week ago, further confirming reports of it being fake.
A spokesperson for Bakkt’s parent company called Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) confirmed that the above-mentioned site is not an official one. And if they are to communicate to potential investors, they would not do it in such a manner.
No Launch Date Confirmed
It is worth noting that Bakkt has yet to issue an official launch date. In fact, the company is still waiting on regulatory approval, which would give it the go signal to start listing its entire futures product. And as far as the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is concerned, the platform is far from getting such an approval.
In addition, the CFTC itself has not decided to publish the firm’s self-warehousing proposal, let alone commented about its status. As soon as this proposal is released, the general public will be given at least 30 days to respond. Once the comment period reaches an end, the commissioners are expected to take a couple of days to go over the feedback. Only after could they vote to either approve or deny Bakkt’s application for approval.
Lastly, the platform has just accumulated roughly $182.5 million at the end of last year. So, it does not make sense for the company to simply solicit funds from the general public once again, considering it has been two months since the First Financing Round. And if the regulated institutional platform will do so, it would not be via a website.