Bakkt to go public via SPAC merger

Bakkt’s institutional platform for trading bitcoin derivatives will become a public company via a reverse merger. The deal is valued at $2 billion, Bloomberg reports.

Sources say Bakkt will absorb VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. This is a so-called SPAC company — it is public but does not conduct operating activities. The aim of SPAC is to help others go public.

In 2020 SPACs surged in popularity. According to Goldman Sachs, reverse-merger deals with such firms accounted for 52% of the $140 billion raised in IPOs.

Bakkt trades options and both physically delivered and cash-settled bitcoin futures. The platform is part of the financial group Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

Bakkt’s launch was announced in August 2018. By the end of the year it had attracted $182.5 million from Boston Consulting Group, Galaxy Digital, Protocol Ventures and others. After this round of financing it was valued at $740 million.

In 2020 it attracted another $300 million from Microsoft M12, PayU, Goldfinch Partners, CMT Digital and Pantera Capital.

The launch took place in September 2019.

Initially the platform was led by Kelly Loeffler, but she was later named to the Senate seat for the state of Georgia. In the recent elections she lost to a Democratic Party candidate.

Serving our great state has been the honor of my lifetime.

Thank you, Georgia! pic.twitter.com/MQc0rFS208

— Kelly Loeffler (@KLoeffler) January 7, 2021

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