Bitcoin Futures Provider Bakkt Names Mike Blandina as New CEO, Adam White as President

Bitcoin warehouse and Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary Bakkt officially has a new head.The company announced Monday that chief product officer Mike Blandina has become the new CEO of the company, effective December 20.

Adam White, the company's chief operating officer, will serve as the company's president.

Blandina joined Bakkt in April, following stints at PayPal and Google.

White, who was one of Coinbase's earliest employees, joined Bakkt in October 2018.Loeffler has run Bakkt since its formal announcement in August 2018, overseeing the company as it worked to launch its physically-delivered bitcoin futures products, the first such in the U.S.Under her tenure, Bakkt also announced it would be launching options on top of its existing futures, as well as cash-settled bitcoin futures through a Singapore-based affiliate.

Her successor, Blandina, will continue to oversee Bakkt's expansion, including the rollout of a consumer-facing retail app meant to facilitate small-item purchases using bitcoin.

Bakkt is also expanding its warehouse efforts, recently naming Galaxy Digital as a client for the latter's new bitcoin funds.

In her introductory remarks, Loeffler praised U.S. president Donald Trump, who wanted Congressman Doug Collins to fill the seat, but did not mention bitcoin or cryptocurrencies.

While ICE itself has a CEO, Jeffrey Sprecher, its subsidiaries appear to be run by presidents or other C-level executives, including ICE Futures US, ICE Clear US, ICE Data Services and ICE Futures Singapore.

Correction: An earlier version of this article said Mike Blandina would become Bakkt's president.

He has been named CEO, with Adam White serving as president.