Bakkt, The Bitcoin Futures Exchange Platform, Makes Google And Paypal Veteran Its Chief Of Product

Bakkt – The Bitcoin Futures Exchange Platform Makes Google And Paypal Veteran Its Chief Of Product

While Bakkt has steadily made a name for itself as a go-to organization for Bitcoin futures, it has since announced that it has hired a veteran of both Google and Paypal to head up its product as Chief Product Officer (CPO).

The announcement was made by the Bakkt team this Thursday, stating that it had hired the Google / Paypal senior – Mike Blandina. Blandina, who has served as both Paypal's head of payments and credit engineering, as well as the director responsible for engineering behind the Google Wallet.

While Blandina has a very established pedigree with major multinational corporations, his more recent role being with the OneMarket team, serving as its Chief Technology Officer, as well as the head of product and engineering. This is according to a blog post written by the CEO of Bakkt – Kelly Loeffler:

“As our CPO, Mike will lead our efforts to converge a trusted ecosystem for digital assets with payments use cases, two elements of Bakkt that help bring real-world applications to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies,” Loeffer went on to argue.

When it comes to the company itself, Loeffer went on to acknowledge the fact that Bakkt, while carving out a place for itself in the world of Bitcoin futures, is currently in a state of suspended animation, through no fault of its own, however. Bakkt, like many other applicants, projects, and companies in the space, is waiting on tenterhooks for the regulatory approval which will serve as the starting pistol for their launch.

But far from a sprint, Bakkt's development, according to the CEO, has been likened to a marathon over anything else.

“As a former marathoner, this point in time recalls the stage in the training regimen when you’re putting in long runs with your training team,” she wrote.

What makes this the case for Bakkt is that delays that have been handed to them from the SEC mean that it has yet to provide a clear official launch date for the project. While this is the case, Loeffler has dropped hints that the exchange will be providing a clearer picture in the foreseeable future, alluding to the fact that “race day is approaching” in her blog.

“There is more work to be done,” Loeffler continued. “I’m proud to be going the distance with this growing team and of the culture, we are building, while bringing digital assets into the mainstream economy.”

For the moment, the company still has to wait on the approval of the regulatory body – US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) in order to officially list its Bitcoin Futures contract legally. The proposal from Bakkt would allow it to operate as a warehouse for its own quantities of Bitcoin. While this is an added plus for it as a regulated quantity, it may be one of the reasons for why there have been a series of delays in obtaining approval from the CFTC.

While there are some obstacles in the way, Loeffler has never been the kind to be unwilling to go the distance, writing the following.

“We are mindful that the infrastructure we are building has the potential to create more opportunities for digital assets to grow in relevance and trust — by being more secure, investible and useful.”