- Bakkt Holdings appoints DTR founder Akshay Naheta as co-CEO alongside Andy Main, pivoting toward core crypto and stablecoin services.
- The company is divesting its custody business to parent company ICE for $1.5M and considering selling its loyalty services after losing Bank of America and Webull as clients.
- Despite client losses that drove a 27% stock price drop, Bakkt reported 350% YoY revenue growth to $3.49B in 2024, with quarterly revenue up sevenfold.
Bakkt Holdings is restructuring its leadership and business operations amid significant client losses, appointing stablecoin expert Akshay Naheta as co-CEO while shedding non-core business segments to refocus on cryptocurrency offerings. The moves come as the crypto trading and custody firm aims to leverage stablecoin technology while adjusting to the departure of two major revenue contributors.
The company announced on March 19 that Naheta, founder of stablecoin payments infrastructure company Distributed Technologies Research (DTR), will join existing CEO Andy Main in a co-leadership arrangement. This executive addition coincides with a strategic partnership between Bakkt and DTR that aims to integrate stablecoin payment infrastructure with Bakkt’s existing crypto trading technology, pending regulatory approval.
The partnership represents a strategic pivot toward emerging revenue opportunities in cross-border payments using stablecoin technology. Naheta brings cryptocurrency infrastructure expertise from his time founding DTR in 2022, following nearly six years in executive positions at SoftBank Group, a firm with significant crypto investment history.
Simultaneously, Bakkt is streamlining operations by divesting its crypto custody subsidiary, Bakkt Trust, to parent company Intercontinental Exchange for $1.5 million. The company indicated this move would reduce annual operating expenses by $3.8 million while freeing approximately $3 million for reinvestment in core crypto operations. According to its statement, Bakkt plans to maintain custody solutions through partnerships with external custody providers.
The company is also considering selling or winding down its loyalty services business, which provides travel and merchandise perks programs to clients. In its fourth quarter and full year earnings report, Bakkt explicitly stated it wants “to focus resources on core crypto offerings” rather than maintaining diversified service lines.
These strategic shifts follow Bakkt’s March 17 disclosure that Bank of America and trading platform Webull will not renew their contracts when they expire in April and June, respectively. These client losses represent significant revenue impacts, as Bank of America generated approximately 16% of Bakkt’s loyalty services revenue in 2023-2024, while Webull accounted for 74% of crypto revenues during the same period. This news triggered a substantial market reaction, with Bakkt shares dropping over 27% to close at $9.33 on March 18.
Despite these challenges, Bakkt reported improved financial performance for 2024. Total revenue reached $3.49 billion, representing a nearly 350% year-over-year increase, while the annual net loss improved to $103.4 million, roughly half the previous year’s figure. Fourth-quarter performance showed similar strength, with revenue increasing more than seven-fold to $1.8 billion and net losses narrowing to $40.4 million.
Looking ahead, the company projects first-quarter 2025 revenue between $1.03 billion and $1.28 billion, which would represent a nearly 50% increase compared to the first quarter of 2024.
Bakkt shares closed flat at $9.31 on March 19 following the announcements, experiencing intraday volatility between $8.50 and a post-market high of $9.88 before settling near the closing price, according to Google Finance.
The company’s stock has declined approximately 62.5% year-to-date, having lost virtually all value since reaching its peak above $1,000 in October 2021. This long-term devaluation contrasts with the company’s recent revenue improvements and strategic repositioning.
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