Bakkt

• 1. Introduction

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  Bakkt launched in August 2018 at the intersection of old finance and new. Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, had teamed up with Microsoft, Starbucks, and Boston Consulting Group. Their shared aim was a software platform for trading and managing digital assets.

  Intercontinental Exchange held 55% of the new company from the start. Bakkt set up offices in Alpharetta, Georgia and New York City. Its founding ambition was to let people trade Bitcoin against ordinary currencies.

  Intercontinental Exchange's involvement gave Bakkt institutional weight from day one. Converting that weight into a live, regulated cryptocurrency platform would take longer than any of the founding partners had planned.

• 2. A Platform Built on Purchases

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  Kelly Loeffler was Bakkt's first chief executive. Under her leadership, the company moved quickly to fill gaps in its platform through acquisitions. In January 2019, Bakkt acquired certain assets of Rosenthal Collins Group to advance its work in consumer payments.

  In April 2019, Bakkt purchased Digital Asset Custody Company, known as DACC. Custody is the secure safekeeping of digital assets on behalf of clients. For any institution entering the crypto space, it was a foundational requirement.

  In September 2019, after clearing regulatory hurdles, Intercontinental Exchange launched trading of bitcoin futures through Bakkt. The gap between the company's founding and its first live futures contract was just over a year.

  In February 2020, Intercontinental Exchange acquired Bridge2 Solutions, a loyalty rewards provider, and contributed the company to Bakkt. Loeffler's appointment to the United States Senate marked the end of this founding chapter. Bakkt's next phase would take it to a listing on the New York Stock Exchange.

• 3. Public and Expanding

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  In October 2021, Bakkt merged with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings, a special-purpose acquisition company sponsored by Victory Park Capital. That transaction made Bakkt a publicly listed company. Going public via a SPAC meant bypassing the conventional initial public offering entirely.

  In April 2023, Bakkt acquired Apex Crypto, an integrated cryptocurrency trading platform based in Chicago. The Apex acquisition gave Bakkt more to manage. Less than two years later, a leadership change would begin reshaping the answer.

• 4. The Loyalty Exit

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  Akshay Naheta's appointment as co-chief executive in March 2025 came as Bakkt was rethinking its portfolio. Four months later, in July 2025, the company sold its loyalty points business for $11 million.

  The loyalty unit had been part of Bakkt since Bridge2 Solutions was contributed to the company in 2020. The sale reduced the breadth of Bakkt's services and left a clearer profile behind.

  Under Naheta, Bakkt operates as a software-as-a-service and API platform, earning commissions on cryptocurrency payments and trades. The July 2025 sale left that model as the company's sole focus.