Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said it named Mike Blandina as the new chief executive of Bakkt, succeeding the company’s founding CEO Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate from Georgia to replace the retiring Johnny Isakson.
Blandina, a former executive at OneMarket, Westfield, PayPal and Google, joined Bakkt earlier this year as chief product officer. Meanwhile, Adam White, a former Coinbase executive and chief operating officer at Bakkt since 2018, has been named president of the company.
“As CEO, Mike will chart Bakkt’s strategic direction, payment products and markets, as well as overseeing the regulatory and financial performance of the company,” Jeffrey Sprecher, chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange, said in a company release. “His more than 25 years of experience in payments across product, engineering, strategy and operations will continue to serve us well.”
He said that White, in his new position, will focus on digital assets, custody and trading as well as the company’s strategic direction.
As previously reported, Starbucks will be the launch partner for a consumer crypto rollout from Bakkt in 2020.
Bakkt earlier this week it set a record of 6,226 physically delivered Bakkt Futures contracts traded at ICE Futures U.S., according to the release.