Bitcoin custodian Bakkt is reportedly going public if a merger with shell firm VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (VPC) goes through, financial publication Bloomberg said Thursday.
The Intercontinental Exchange (ICE)-owned firm will forego the traditional initial public offering (IPO) route as a result, and instead, trade directly on a public exchange.
VPC is a special-purpose acquisition company (SPAC)—more colloquially a “blank check” firm—or a company designed to take other companies public. SPACs allow retail investors to invest in private equities, and a merger would mean they can trade shares of Bakkt on the open market.
Sources suggested to Bloomberg that the deal would value Bakkt (combined with VPC) in the region of over $2 billion. That would mean a large exit for existing shareholders, who have invested nearly $300 million in Bakkt so far.
Meanwhile, despite the mammoth valuation, Bakkt has remained a humble player in the broader crypto market. It started operations last year—after several delays—with its innovative physically-delivered daily and monthly Bitcoin futures, and as per analytics firm skew, traded over $93 million yesterday.
The amount, while significant, is small compared to crypto players like Binance or Bybit, which traded over $29 billion and $12 billion respectively on Thursday. Even the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), a legacy exchange, traded far more—$3.8 billion as per skew data.