By
Godfrey Benjamin
May 7th, 2024
Adam White participated in Bakkt’s launching from the very beginning. Under his reign, the company has achieved a lot. In his role, White was focusing on digital asset markets, custody, and trading, as well as Bakkt’s strategic direction.
Adam White, President at Bakkt Holdings Inc (NYSE: BKKT), has announced his decision to quit the digital asset brokerage company. In the tweet he posted on Thursday, White said that he would leave his position at Bakkt as soon as next week. The reason for leaving or his further plans are unclear.
After a great 3+ years at bakkt, next week will be my last
I’ve loved working at intersection of crypto + markets and good to see the industry finding the balance between innovation & regulation. Lots of work still to do here but never been more optimistic about the future 🌕
— Adam White (@WhiteAdamL) December 23, 2021
Adam White joined Bakkt back in 2018. Before Bakkt, he was serving as Vice President & General Manager of Coinbase Inc (NYSE: COIN), the largest digital currency platform in the US. When welcoming Adam White onboard, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler was excited about their collaboration. At that time, he intended to reduce the risk of investing in Bitcoin (BTC) by prefunding all of the trades. Furthermore, the platform was going to provide a fully-funded separate guaranty fund for Bitcoin which would eliminate the risk of default. This was the goal behind launching Bakkt.
Bakkt’s Achievements Under White’s Reign
Bakkt is a custody service that stores Bitcoin in a secure form, known as cold storage. Being a brainchild of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Bakkt was announced in August 2018, but it officially launched in September 2019. With over 500,000 early-access participating consumers, access to 250 merchant partners, and nearly 100 institutional clients, Bakkt powers commerce by enabling consumers, businesses, and institutions to unlock value from digital assets.
Adam White participated in Bakkt’s launching from the very beginning. Under his reign, the company has achieved a lot. In his role, White was focusing on digital asset markets, custody, and trading, as well as Bakkt’s strategic direction. His experience in crypto markets gave him a unique perspective that helped shape the platform’s business. In 2019, the company announced a partnership with Starbucks to enable customers to reload their Starbucks Card and buy coffee with Bitcoin, albeit indirectly. It was the first of many such programs to launch. Currently, Bakkt supports over 30 loyalty program sponsors and over 200 gift card merchants.
Other partners of Bakkt include Mastercard Inc (NYSE: MA), Finastra, Choice Hotels, Google LLC (NYSE: GOOG), Quiznos, and more.
Notably, run by Adam White, Bakkt became the second crypto firm to be listed on the stock exchange. Besides, in October this year, Bakkt merged with special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings and went public. Currently, it is trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol “BKKT.”
Now, the company is experiencing not the best times. Its stock price was $10.00 at close on Thursday, down from an all-time high of $42.52 on October 29, when the company just started trading on the NYSE.