ICE's Bakkt raises $300 million towards consumer market push

Crypto derivatives provider, Bakkt has raised $300 million in Series B funding to finance a push into the retail market. Bakkt has so far majored on the institutional markets, creating a regulated futures and options market for cryptotrading and an institutional custody offering.

The new funding round - financed by Microsoft's M12, PayU, Boston Consulting Group, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital, Pantera Capital and Bakkt parent firm Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) all participated in the funding round. Bakkt chief Mike Blandina says.

With bitcoin markets crashing in response to the Covid-19 outbreak, Bakkt remains intent on a Summer launch for its one-size-fits-all mobile app, that will enable users to consolidate all of their digital assets -from crypto to loyalty points to in-game tokens - in a single virtual wallet. ICE CEO Jeffrey Sprecher said during a February earnings call he saw the acquisition of Bridge2 as potentially opening Bakkt to an asset class worth $1 trillion.

To this end, the firm will use a portion of the fresh funding to acquire Bridge2 Solutions, a provider of loyalty services for merchants and consumers, which was taken over by parent company ICE in February. Bridge2 powers programmes for seven of the top ten financial institutions and 4,500 loyalty, incentive and employee perk programmes for companies across a wide spectrum of industries.

I’m excited at our potential to unlock nearly $1 trillion of digital assets when the Bakkt app launches this summer," Blandina wrote Monday. "With the completion of our Series B financing and recent acquisition of Bridge2 Solutions, Bakkt is now a team of 350 employees and powers the loyalty redemption programs for seven of the top 10 financial institutions and over 4,500 loyalty and incentive programs including two of the largest U.S. airlines

Lastly, digital assets have been around for decades, and we all have way more value there than we realize. We’re laser focused on getting consumers access to that value and making it as easy to spend as if it were cash," Bakkt President Adam White told CoinDesk.