Bakkt is a provider of institutional and retail solutions for digital assets. Bakkt provides a mobile application enabling consumers to unlock the value of digital assets, including cryptocurrency, loyalty points, in-game assets, and gift cards while giving merchants and loyalty program sponsors deeper customer engagement and delivering cost savings to merchants. Bakkt was founded in 2018 by Intercontinental Exchange. ^{[1] [10][36]}

The idea for Bakkt came from Intercontinental Exchange CEO Jeffrey Sprecher and Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler, who developed the concept more than five years before announcing the venture on August 3, 2018. In 2015, to learn how cryptocurrency markets worked, ICE acquired a minority stake in Coinbase, a leading cryptocurrency exchange. ^[1][37]

On October 22, 2018, it was announced that Bitcoin futures trading on Bakkt would begin on December 12, 2018. It was later postponed until January of 2019 and finally launched on September 22nd, 2019. The Bitcoin futures contracts went live with the first trade priced at $10,115.00. ^{[13] [14] [21]}

On July 22, 2019, Bakkt initiated user acceptance testing for its Bitcoin futures trading and custody.^[27][28] The Bakkt futures contracts цуку covered by the existing guaranty fund at ICE Clear US, which haв an established risk waterfall across multiple commodities markets. Around $35 million was contributed to the existing guaranty fund with the addition of these new futures contracts. The team also designed the Bakkt Warehouse to provide regulated, secure custody of Bitcoin that is protected by $125 million in insurance.^[29] In September 2019, the Bakkt team announced that Bakkt Warehouse launched Bitcoin deposits and withdrawals as planned.^[30]

Bakkt established Bakkt Trust Company which received a charter from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) on August 16, 2019. The NYDFS "has authorized Bakkt to provide custody services for bitcoin in conjunction with the launch of physically delivered bitcoin futures contracts. Bakkt will serve institutional customers; its bitcoin futures contracts will be listed for trading on Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Futures US and cleared through ICE Clear US."^[39]

According to a September 9, 2019, tweet from Bakkt, "Bitcoin deposited at our Warehouse is protected by a $125 million insurance policy."^[40]

Bakkt's license from the New York Department of Financial Services was later expanded to allow it to provide services to "institutional" clients, according to a blog post by Bakkt COO Adam White on November 11, 2019.^[41] On November 19, Galaxy Digital announced that it would use Bakkt as a custodian for its two new Bitcoin investment funds, the Galaxy Bitcoin Fund and the Galaxy Institutional Bitcoin Fund.^[42]

On August 16, 2019, Loeffler announced on Bakkt's blog that ICE Futures U.S.'s physically-delivered bitcoin futures, commonly referred to as "Bakkt futures," would launch trading on September 23, 2019.^[43]

Kelly Loeffler, the spouse of ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher, was the first CEO of Bakkt. In October 2018, Bakkt announced that Adam White would join as COO. In April 2019, Bakkt announced that it had hired PayPal and Google veteran Mike Blandina as Chief Product Officer. In June 2019, Bakkt brought on Chris Petersen, a former payments product strategist from Google, to help the firm launch its mobile app-based wallet, dubbed Bakkt Pay.^[38]

On January 1, 2019, the Bakkt team announced that the firm completed the first round of funding of $182.5 million from Boston Consulting Group, CMT Digital, Eagle Seven, Galaxy Digital, Goldfinch Partners, Alan Howard, Horizons Ventures, Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft Ventures, Pantera Capital, PayU, the fintech arm of Naspers, and Protocol Ventures.^[23][24]

In March 2020, the Bakkt team announced that the firm completed $300 million Series B financing from Microsoft Ventures, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, Pantera Capital, and Intercontinental Exchange.^[31][32]

In January 2019, Bakkt partially acquired futures commission merchant Rosenthal Collins Group (RCG).

Bakkt acquired the company's back-office processing systems, treasury, and compliance departments, which were used to handle payments between customers and merchants on Bakkt.^[25][26]

In April 2019, Bakkt acquired Digital Asset Custody Company, a crypto custodian service.^[35]

In February 2020, Bakkt acquired a loyalty program provider Bridge2 Solutions, using funds from its $182.5 million funding round for the deal.

Bakkt would leverage Bridge2 Solution's existing merchant relationships to build out its products.^[33][34]