Scam alert: Fraudsters seek to raise money by impersonating Bakkt

Bakkt has been one of the most anticipated platforms in the crypto circle since it was announced last year. With this in mind, dubious fraudsters are seeking to capitalize on this excitement to defraud investors. The fraudsters have developed a website that claims to be raising money for the development of the platform.

The website, bakktplatform.io, is a poor imitation of the real Bakkt platform. The first glaring mistake that one notices is the numerous grammatical errors on the landing page. For a platform that seeks to raise money from investors, the fraudsters haven’t put in a whole lot of effort into its development. Some of the grammatically incorrect statements on the first page include:

“This an open, seamless global network to enable you to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets simply, safely and efficiently. Backed by Intercontinental Exchange’s proven financial market infrastructure and technology. […] Bakkt’s open-source, neutral platform will be launch to meet applicable regulatory requirements.”

The red flags don’t stop there. The fraudsters further announce that the platform will launch live on March 12. This is quite ambitious of them, given that the real Bakkt platform is yet to even announce a date for the launch. The platform, which is owned by Intercontinental Exchange, has been smoothing out the regulatory edges. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has been working with them to meet regulations but so far, they have yet to make any major progress. 

Stamp Fraud Out

The platform urges investors to send their crypto to a stated address. They are then asked to submit their addresses where they are to receive their profits once the platform goes live. The fraudsters were also bold enough to claim that the profits will start rolling in just three days after the official launch. This is yet another red flag, given that no one can predict how the market will respond to the platform. At press time, the address had yet to receive any transactions, a positive sign that investors are questioning projects before investing.

A spokesperson for the Intercontinental Exchange has also come forward to distance the firm from the scam website. Speaking to Coindesk, the spokesperson made it explicitly clear that ICE always uses official communication channels. Should any new developments come up with Bakkt, ICE will ensure that the general public knows about it, he added.

ICE is the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world. Its market capitalization stands at $19 trillion, three times higher than that of the second-placed NASDAQ. ICE also owns multiple clearing houses in North America and Europe.