Bakkt to go public
Former Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler and her husband, ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher (Photo: Whitehouse.gov)
Cryptocurrencies

Crypto exchange Bakkt to go public with reverse merger: Report

The newly public firm owned by NYSE-parent Intercontinental Exchange should be valued at more than $2 billion

By  / January 8, 2021 /

Bakkt, a cryptocurrency and alternative investment platform majority-owned by Intercontinental Exchange, is about to go public through a merger with blank-check firm VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, according to a report.

On Jan. 8, Bloomberg reported that people familiar with the event believe that Bakkt’s merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings is near and may be announced next week. The new entity that would result from the merger would be valued at more than $2 billion.

VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings is a blank-check company—a public firm created solely to merge with and acquire other companies. It is publicly traded on the Nasdaq stock exchange. 

Bakkt launched in 2019 as an institutional client-focused, regulated cryptocurrency derivatives platform. It is owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent of the New York Stock Exchange.

Overall, Bakkt is one of the most influential firms in the space. and Its former CEO, Kelly Loeffler, resigned after being  appointed a senator for Georgia. She lost her re-election bid on Jan. 6.

Financial disclosure forms published in early May showed that she earned $3.5 million while working at the company. She is married to ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, and together the pair is thought to be worth well north of $500 million.

In June, Bakkt partnered with crypto merchant bank Galaxy Digital to provide a solution for institutional investors and asset managers looking for a safe way to buy, trade, and store Bitcoin (BTC).

Bakkt’s offering is largely designed to fit the needs of institutional investors, who are for the first time becoming interested in investing in Bitcoin. With Bitcoin’s price breaking new records nearly every day, Bakkt sees itself as well-positioned to profit from the capital that giant new investors are eager to pour into the new and rapidly growing asset class.

As Modern Consensus reported in mid-December, the participation of institutional investors and well-known investors is what many industry analysts and observers believe differentiates this bitcoin bull run from previous ones.

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Adrian is a newswriter based out of Pisa, Italy. He's passionate about cryptocurrency, digital rights, IT, tech and futurology and likes to think about the future in a positive way.