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Bakkt announced the launch of the Bakkt App, a digital wallet that brings together bitcoin and other forms of digital assets into one platform. The Bakkt App gives consumers the power to convert participating rewards points to cash or using bitcoin as payment, for example - all within one user-friendly application. Bakkt estimates that there are over $1.2 trillion in digital assets currently held in cryptocurrencies, loyalty and rewards points, and gift cards. Bakkt's goal is to make all digital assets as liquid as any fiat currency.

Bakkt, launched amid great fanfare in 2018 by Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, warned that it might not be able to stay in business. Bakkt is a digital asset platform and payment app that enables institutions to buy, sell, store and spend crypto-assets. It made strategic partnerships, including with Starbucks and Amazon Web Services, to enable digital asset transactions and services. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1820302/000182030224000011/bakkt-20230930.htm

ICE-backed Bakkt is apparently gearing up to announce a Q3 launch date. It is still waiting on approval from the NY DFS to operate Bakkt Warehouse, the custodian for the bitcoin that underpins its physically delivered futures. However, some are arguing that Bakkt's guaranty fund will be too small, which Bakkt itself seems to acknowledge with plans to increase the guaranty fund over time, after the launch.

Bakkt has raised an additional $300 million of capital with participation from investors including Intercontinental Exchange, Microsoft's M12, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, and Pantera Capital.

Select Starbucks mobile app customers now have a payment choice of "Bakkt Cash" as Bakkt launched a limited test.

ICE subsidiary Bakkt will provide custody services for institutional clients. Pantera Capital, Galaxy Digital and Tagomi have already signed on as initial customers for Bakkt Warehouse.

Bakkt has a partnership with Starbucks and it will be launching its mass consumer-facing product next year. Starbucks is one of the merchants that it is working with, to reduce payments and allow consumers to more easily spend digital assets. Bakkt wants to make payments faster, cheaper, and more global.

Adam White, a founder and President of the digital assets and rewards platform Bakkt, is moving on from the company. Although he did not state specific reasons for his departure, Bakkt has struggled to carve out a niche for itself even as the broader crypto market has boomed. After more than three years in operation, its offering that consolidates a variety of digital assets into a single wallet, hasn't gained much traction, and, while the firm's stock initially traded as high as $50 shortly after going public in October, it has floundered since and was recently trading under $9.

"Bakkt is nixing its consumer app to focus on its business-to-business technology solutions. Bakkt, which offers a platform for commerce to link to cryptocurrency, said it will continue its core focus of providing businesses with crypto and loyalty experiences for their customers through SaaS and API solutions on a secure and compliant platform."

Our contracts have already received the green light from the CFTC through the self-certification process and user acceptance testing has begun. With approval by the New York State Department of Financial Services to create Bakkt Trust Company, a qualified custodian, the Bakkt Warehouse will custody bitcoin for physically delivered futures.

The New York State Department of Financial Services authorized Bakkt Trust Company LLC to offer custody services for Bitcoin following the introduction of trading physically delivered Bitcoin futures contracts on the Intercontinental Exchange Futures U.S. Under its charter, Bakkt will provide services to institutional customers.

Bakkt, the bitcoin futures exchange that launched last year, wants to integrate reward points, game tokens, and cryptocurrency into a mobile wallet that will allow consumers to spend them as dollars. Intercontinental Exchange has agreed to acquire loyalty program provider Bridge2 Solutions, whose ownership it will later transfer to its majority-owned subsidiary Bakkt.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) has approved the application of Bakkt Marketplace for virtual currency and money transmitter licenses. First granted to Paxos in 2015, the BitLicense is New York's program for regulating virtual currency firms. With it, Bakkt will have new access to offer crypto trading in the financial center of the United States. https://www.dfs.ny.gov/reports_and_publications/press_releases/pr202103111

Bakkt has expanded to custody business to cover more than 70 clients, who can now purchase $500 million worth of insurance coverage via insurance broker Marsh. The firm - which is set to release a consumer app this summer - has also partnered with two major financial institutions. https://www.bakkt.com/blog/company/bringing-digital-assets-mainstream

Bakkt may finally receive the approval for its BTC futures in the next 10 days. It all depends on whether the U. S. CFTC decides to not to disapprove the futures.

LedgerX launched the first physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts in the U.S., beating ICE's Bakkt and TD Ameritrade-backed ErisX to the punch. It will be available to both institutional and retail investors.

Trading volumes in bitcoin options listed on the Intercontinental Exchange's Bakkt platform have completely dried up, even while CME's options product is seeing strong interest. As per Bakkt's data, not a single bitcoin options contract was traded last week on Bakkt, withactivity last registered on Jan. 17, when 20 lots had changed hands.

Starbucks is currently conducting a limited test of the cryptocurrency Bakkt Cash for use in its stores.

The Intercontinental Exchange's pending bitcoin platform Bakkt plans to begin testing its two futures contracts on July 22 of this year.

Crypto platform Bakkt is set to merge with Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. A SPAC is a shell company whose only purpose is to buy or merge with another company and allow it to be listed on the stock markets without going through lengthy and expensive process of an initial public offering, or IPO. Bakkt is expected to be valued at $2.1 billion after completing the merger.