Investing.com -- Bitcoin rallied on Friday on signs the popular crypto is set to expand its reach after Bakkt, a subsidiary of the Intercontinental Exchange was given the green light from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to launch Bitcoin futures next month.
Bitcoin rose 3.52% to $10,408, but remained on track to snap a two-week winning streak following losses earlier in the week.
Following the approval from the necessary regulators, Bakkt said it planned to launch bitcoin futures on Sept. 23. Bakkt's efforts to launch bitcoin futures as earlier as August last year were thwarted by the U.S. financial regulators, who delayed the launch citing compliance issues.
The launch is expected to spark a wave of new funds into the bitcoin, particularly from institutional investors, who many claim have been one of the main drivers of the popular crypto’s rally this year.
“Whether institutions were going to adopt crypto or not was an open question about 12 months ago. I think it's safe to say we now know the answer.” Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said on Friday. “We're seeing $200-400M a week in new crypto deposits come in from institutional customers.”
Other cryptos were mixed, with XRP falling 0.02% to $0.26170, Ethereum up 0.19% to $184.43 and Litecoin down 0.95% to $75.16.