Bakkt officially announced today that it has appointed a new CEO.
This morning we’re excited to announce that @Mike__Blandina has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer and @WhiteAdamL will serve as Presidenthttps://t.co/tRWtBLSA5Y
— Bakkt (@Bakkt) December 23, 2019
It is Mike Blandina, who takes the place of Kelly Loeffler, while Adam White will be the new President.
Bakkt’s historic CEO, Kelly Loeffler, ran for election in Georgia’s Senate seat and had to leave her position at the company. Loeffler is also the wife of Jeffrey Sprecher, the founder and CEO of the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of Bakkt.
Mike Blandina’s nomination comes from Intercontinental Exchange itself, as does that of the new President Adam White, with the two positions becoming operational as of December 20th.
Blandina actually joined Bakkt at the beginning of 2019 as Chief Product Officer, after having also held managerial roles at PayPal and Google, while White joined Bakkt in 2018, after having held a long-standing managerial position at Coinbase.
The company has existed for about a year, despite the fact that its fully-regulated bitcoin futures contracts only reached the market in September 2019, and in addition to trading futures, it also owns the Bakkt Warehouse, which provides bitcoin custody services for institutions.
As a result of its recent trading record, the company plans to capitalise on this momentum in 2020 with a product roadmap that includes new trading options, an expanded offering of custody services, and most importantly, an innovative retail bitcoin payment app that could take BTC to the mainstream.
ICE CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, commented on the two new appointments saying:
“As CEO, Mike will chart Bakkt’s strategic direction, payment products and markets, as well as overseeing the regulatory and financial performance of the company. His more than 25 years of experience in payments across product, engineering, strategy and operations will continue to serve us well. In his new role as President, Adam will focus on digital asset markets, custody and trading, as well as Bakkt’s strategic direction. Adam’s breadth of experience in crypto markets, and his work as a founding executive at Bakkt, give him a unique perspective that will help shape our future successes”.
