ICE, more commonly known as Intercontinental Exchange, Inc the parent firm behind US exchange NYSE and cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt made an announcement earlier this week stating that it has appointed a new Chief Executive Officer and President for its crypto subsidiary.
As per the statement released by the firm, it has promoted Mr. Mike Blandina’s current head of products to serve as Chief Executive officer and promoted Mr. Adam White as President for the firm. Both appointments came into effect from the 20th of this month following the departure of former CEO and one of the founding members of the crypto trading service provider.
Ms. Loeffler’s departure from the firm was the result of the United States Senate opting to appoint Kelly as the successor for departing Senator Johnny Isakson. It is to be noted that both executives who have been promoted to c-level management roles are veterans with an impressive career history in boasting successful track record across multiple industries.
Mr. Blandina who takes on the role of CEO joined the firm as Chief Product Officer in April earlier this year following the resignation from One Market as its Executive Vice President of Product and Chief Technology Officer. Some of the other notable roles from his career include – EVP/CTO of Westfield, VP of Engineering at PayPal, Advisory Board Member for Money 20/20, Engineering Director for Payments at Google, COO of TXVIA, CTO for Blackhawk Network, CEO for Efficient forms, Esalestax.com & Datanomix Inc.
Similarly, Mr. White who succeeds as President joined the firm as Chief Operating Officer post serving at Coinbase for nearly 5 years in roles of Director, VP & General Manager.
Bakkt officially launched its services in 2019 and in its first year of operations, it has managed to establish itself as one of the leading players in the global digital assets market. One of its most notable achievements is the launch of first fully-regulated bitcoin futures and options markets with ICE Futures U.S. which started earlier this year. This operation is fully supported and backed by the Bakkt warehouse, a regulated bitcoin custody offering that allows institutions around the world to safeguard their assets using Bakkt’s enterprise-grade technology and infrastructure.
Commenting on the promotion of two of its senior-level executives, Mr. Jeffrey Sprecher – Founder, Chairman, and CEO of ICE said “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. His more than 25 years of experience in payments across product, engineering, strategy, and operations will continue to serve us well. In his new role as President, Adam will focus on digital asset markets, custody and trading, as well as Bakkt’s strategic direction. Adam’s breadth of experience in crypto markets, and his work as a founding executive at Bakkt, give him a unique perspective that will help shape our future successes”.
The statement also revealed that the platform saw a new record of traded volume for physically delivered Bakkt Bitcoin futures contract this week with a number of futures contracts traded scaling a new high of 6,226 transactions. This record is a 25% spike from the firm’s previous record which the firm hopes to capitalise on and revealed plans for the year ahead which included the launch of new trading products, expanded custody offerings, an innovative consumer payments app, and several other innovative product announcements.
Source:
https://ir.theice.com/press/press-releases/all-categories/2019/12-23-2019-132935459%E2%80%AC
