Bakkt, a Bitcoin Futures platform founded by the Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), is perfectly gearing up for a launch that its CEO, Kelly Loeffler has described as a “marathon.”
In an announcement today, Bakkt said that it has recruited Mike Blandina who at different times in his illustrious career worked with PayPal as Head of Payments and Credit Engineering and at Google as Director of Engineering for their wallet service.
Blandina will now take on a new role as Bakkt’s Chief Product Officer (CPO) with one his primary task being to “converge a trusted ecosystem for digital assets with payments use cases.”
The announcement further notes that the two elements (a trusted ecosystem and payment use cases) are what will help “bring real-world applications to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.”
Given his experience working with some of the world’s finest payment systems, it is perhaps not surprising that Blandina has decided to test his strength in an industry that is truly revolutionary.
Moving away from the new recruit, Bakkt’s CEO Kelly Loeffler shared what seems as assurance that Bakkt’s proposed Bitcoin Futures platform is still on the way despite several delayed launch dates.
Loeffler noted that the Bakkt’s current situation, that is, navigating through the regulatory waters could vividly compare to a “training regimen” when a marathoner is putting in long runs with a training team.
According to her, Bakkt’s supposed “Race Day” is approaching and everyone at the startup is working towards fitting in all the pieces before it does arrive.
In recent times, Bakkt has also added other notable recruits with a wealth of experience gained from former positions at traditional payment companies. Between 2018 and now, Bakkt has recruited COO Adam White, a former Coinbase employee, and Balaji Devarasetty who joined from WorldPay.
Hopefully, the recent hires would be just enough as Bakkt gears up for the launch of what is already becoming one of the industry’s most anticipated products.