Yesterday Bakkt launched its rewards and digital asset wallet to the public. The startup was founded by New York Stock Exchange owner ICE, which still controls 65% of the equity after a SPAC listing that made the merged company a unicorn twice over. However, ICE no longer has majority voting rights.
The Bakkt App has been ‘invitation only’ for some time, and the company says that 500,000 people participated in the Early Access Program. Although based on iOS AppStore reviews, some were lured by a free $10 to spend. Its big vision is to provide a single wallet where users can store cryptocurrencies, cash, rewards points, gift cards and in the future, digital stocks. But more than that, any rewards points can be converted to cash and used to make payments. So theoretically, in future one could use air miles to pay for Starbucks.
The company started out with a Bitcoin futures contract but pivoted to focus on rewards. To do so, it paid almost $300 million to buy loyalty technology firm Bridge 2 Solution. At launch, the Bakkt App highlighted five partners Starbucks, GolfNow, Best Buy, Choice Hotels and Fiserv.
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