Bakkt Stock Surges 20% after Move on Stablecoin Payments Strategy

Cryptocurrency infrastructure platform Bakkt Holdings announced an agreement to purchase Distributed Technologies Research, a stablecoin and fiat payments infrastructure provider.

In a Monday notice, Bakkt said the agreement will have the company issue more than nine million shares of its Class A common stock to Distributed Technologies Research shareholders. At the time of publication, the price of shares of Bakkt Holdings (BKKT) on the New York Stock Exchange was $19.54, having surged more than 20% in the previous 24 hours, which would would make the deal worth more than $178 million. 

“The acquisition will allow Bakkt to consolidate a critical piece of its stablecoin settlement infrastructure and prepares the company to launch its neobanking strategy with multiple distribution partners in the coming months,” said Mike Alfred, the director and member of the special committee of Bakkt’s board.

Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange and a 31% shareholder of Bakkt’s Class A common stock, will vote in favor of the deal. Akshay Naheta, who founded Distributed Technologies Research in 2022, will remain CEO of Bakkt following the merger.

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According to Bakkt, the merger was part of a strategy to form a “unified financial infrastructure platform” and expand its payment and banking use cases in 2026. The company said the deal was subject to regulatory and shareholder approval.

Crypto deals, acquisitions hit record high in 2025

According to a December Financial Times report, the crypto and blockchain industry saw $8.6 billion worth of deals in 2025. Among the most significant of the acquisitions included crypto exchange Coinbase buying options trading platform Deribit for $2.9 billion, Kraken buying Ninjatrader for $1.5 billion, and Ripple Labs acquiring Hidden Road for $1.2 billion.