Bakkt crypto exchange wants to go public

The institutional stock exchange Bakkt wants to be listed on the stock exchange via detours.

The Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange and the institutional cryptocurrency exchange Bakkt, announced that their crypto branch could go public

As the Wall Street Journal reported , Bitcoin Freedom will merge with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings. The company is traded under the symbol VIH. VPC is a so-called „Special Purpose Acquisition Company“ or SPAC. In German this means something like „company for purposeful purchases“. It is a shell company whose sole purpose is to buy or merge with another company in order to be listed on the stock exchange. The aim is to avoid the lengthy and expensive process of an IPO.

Bakkt is expected to be valued at $ 2.1 billion after the merger

The exchange will also raise an additional $ 532 million to support the development of the Bakkt app. This is a retail-focused wallet and reward app.

A Bakkt spokesman told Cointelegraph that the merger is expected to complete in the second quarter of 2021. The combined company will be renamed Bakkt Holdings, Inc. and listed on the NYSE. The representative also said Bakkt was now focused on bringing the app to market in March.

There were rumors of the takeover back in January, as Cointelegraph reported. Bakkt has seen a surge in volume this year and multiple records in a row . Nonetheless, it has a much smaller crypto market presence than its rival CME.