Regulated BTC Futures Platform Bakkt May Go Public With A $2B Merger

The regulated BTC futures platform Bakkt is considering going public through a rumored $2 billion merger as we can see more in today’s crypto news.

The regulated BTC futures platform Bakkt is mostly owned by the Intercontinental Exchange and is rumored to be deep in discussion to go public via a merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. Bloomberg published a new story citing anonymous sources that have some knowledge on the matter who claimed that Bakkt is already in advanced talks about the merger, predicting that the official announcement on the issue could be published next week.

The sources estimated that the combined entity could be valued at more than $2 billion if the merger is completed. VPC is a special acquisition company that is affiliated with Victory Park Capital which is an SEC-registered alternative investment company and its chief executive John Martin described the company’s strategy as looking to “identify, partner with and help grow a business in the fintech sector.”

Bakkt was launched in 2019 and it is institutionally focused mostly, regulated as well, and offers a “physically-delivered” BTC futures contract. The exchange’s futures increased to $286 million in trade volume over the past week. Bakkt’s founding CEO, former Senator Kelly Loeffler, lost the Georgia run-off election on January 6^th.

Loeffler ran against Democrat Rapahel Warock and left Bakkt late in December 2019 to fill a Senate seat that belonged to Senator Jonny Isakson after he stepped down due to health concerns. Tuesday’s special election will now determine the fate of the Senate and alongside Warnock and Loeffler, Jon Ossoff and Senator David Perdue ran for Georgia’s other Senate seat. Both Democrats are winning and are awaiting for President-elect Joe Biden to enact his agenda by creating a 50-50 split in the upper house with vice-president-elect Kamala Harris.

Also, as reported recenlty, Bakkt broke its own record as a crypto derivatives company run by the Intercontinental Exchange when 15,955 futures got traded on the platform accounting for $172 million in volume. Bakkt’s previous record was set at 11,706 Bitcoin futures so today’s high is set at 36% improvement. Bitcoin futures are agreements to sell or to purchase Bitcoin at one point in the future for a specific price so given the recent price fluctuations putting money into the futures contracts, becomes a slight gamble.