Bakkt is going public on New York Stock Exchange

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Bakkt has confirmed that it will become a publicly-traded company by way of the blank-check company VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings ($VIH). The news was confirmed today (January 11th, 2021), when Bakkt announced that they have signed a definitive agreement with VPC Impact acquisition holdings (VPC). 

The details

The combination of Bakkt and VPC will give the combined company–which will be called Bakkt Holdings–a valuation of $2.1 billion. The deal is expected to be completed sometime in Q2 2021, and subsequently, the $VIH ticker symbol will change to reflect the companies new name (Bakkt Holdings) and will trade on the NYSE. 

In addition to announcing the definitive agreement, Bakkt announced that Gavin Michael, the former head of technology for Citi’s Global Consumer Bank, would be taking over as Bakkt CEO effective immediately. 

“The average consumer holds a wealth of digital assets but rarely tracks their value and lacks the tools to manage and utilize them,” said Michael. “I’m excited to join the management team of a company, at this important time in its expansion, whose vision is to bring trust and transparency to digital assets through innovation and technology and, through that process, unlock trillions of dollars currently held in customer and loyalty accounts and allow consumers to put them to work.

Coinbase vs. Bakkt

Coinbase is also looking to become a publicly-traded company on a U.S stock exchange. Coinbase has confirmed that they are looking to go public, and many people believe that the Coinbase IPO will take place in Q1 2020; however, Coinbase has not confirmed that timeline. 

Although several digital currency mining companies are publicly traded in the U.S, there are no other U.S based digital currency service providers–especially major players like Coinbase and Bakkt–that publicly trade. 

That being said, there may be a bit of a race between the two companies to see which can get listed first.