Benzinga | Oct 18, 2021 12:56PM EDT

ICE-Owned Crypto Exchange Bakkt Begins Trading On NYSE

Shares of institutional crypto exchange Bakkt Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:BKKT) have begun trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

What Happened: Bakkt is a digital asset exchange and custodian owned by Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE:ICE), the parent company of the NYSE. On Friday, the company announced that it would be going public via a SPAC merger with VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (NASDAQ:VIH).

The gross proceeds of the deal were $448 million, which Bakkt plans to use to finance investments in platform capabilities, marketing efforts and accelerating partnerships.

Last week, Bakkt partnered with Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL) (NASDAQ:GOOG) to allow its users to purchase Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) and other cryptocurrencies through the Google Pay wallet.

Bakkt users will be able to add their Bakkt Visa Debit Card into Google Pay and purchase everyday goods and services with cryptocurrency wherever Google Pay is accepted.

"This partnership is a testament to Bakkt's strong position in the digital asset marketplace, to empower consumers to enjoy their digital assets in a real-time, secure, reliable manner," said Bakkt CEO Gavin Michael.

"Additionally, partnering with Google Cloud will enable us to continue to build a best-in-class, innovative platform that can undoubtedly scale to meet the needs of millions of users," he said.

Image by Andr? Fran?ois McKenzie on Unsplash.