Bakkt will allow customers to trade ether on its platform in the 'next few weeks'

• Users of Bakkt will be able to buy, hold, and sell ether directly through its app by the end of the year.
• Bakkt also said institutional clients can choose the Bakkt Warehouse for custody of ether.
• The digital asset firm went public on October 18 amid growing crypto demand.

Users of digital asset platform Bakkt Holdings will be able to buy, hold, and sell ether directly through its app by the end of the year, a spokesperson told Insider.

"We have received all required approvals and have already built the necessary technology to begin offering ethereum on the Bakkt platform. These capabilities will be live on the platform in the next few weeks," the spokesperson said via email.

The Alpharetta, Georgia-based firm, which went public on October 18, also said institutional clients can choose the Bakkt Warehouse for custody of ether, according to a statement.

"At Bakkt, providing flexible opportunities for users to enjoy their digital assets is a top consideration, and adding Ethereum brings a popular and growing cryptocurrency to our roster," Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael said in the statement.

Bakkt's addition of the second-largest digital asset by market cap to its suite of offerings, which already include bitcoin trading, is a nod to its rapid growth.

Ether has notched a 509.7% year-to-date gain compared to bitcoin's 110.4% surge. The two assets command more than half of crypto's $2.8 trillion market cap, according to CoinGecko.

As ether and bitcoin scale record highs, analysts have been anxiously awaiting "the flippening," a hypothetical point at which ether overtakes bitcoin in market valuation to become the largest cryptocurrency. For now, bitcoin remains dominant with a market cap of $1.16 trillion compared to $534.5 billion for ether.