Could an Alpharetta-based cryptocurrency company once led by former Georgia U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler soon be owned by President-elect Donald Trump?
The answer may be yes. Trump Media and Technology Group (TMTG), the company that operates Trump’s social media company, Truth Social, is reportedly in advanced talks to buy financially troubled crypto trading venue Bakkt, according to the Financial Times, citing two people with knowledge of the talks. Trump has a 53% stake in TMTG.
Trump courted the support of crypto traders during the presidential race, promising to be a “crypto president,” and he spoke at the annual bitcoin conference.
Bakkt is publicly traded but is owned in large part by Atlanta-based Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.
Loeffler, a former ICE executive, led creation of the crypto-trading company in 2018 before she was appointed to the Senate. While in the Senate, Loeffler emerged as a key Trump ally and has remained so in the years since, as has her husband, ICE CEO Jeff Sprecher. As a couple, they were the top Trump donors in Georgia this past cycle, and Loeffler could also be in line for a spot in the Trump administration.
Loeffler left Bakkt in 2019 when she was picked by Gov. Brian Kemp to fill the rest of U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s term. After failing to win election to the seat in 2021, Loeffler has stayed in politics, founding the conservative voter turnout organization Greater Georgia and most recently donating nearly $5 million to Trump’s campaign. She is now one of the cochairs of his inaugural committee.
It is unclear what Bakkt’s valuation would be if the all-stock acquisition goes through, according to the Times. Bakkt did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ICE and a representative for Loeffler declined to comment.
Prior to the Times report, Bakkt shares were trading about $12 per share. About 6 p.m. in after-hours trading, shares were trading for about $30.
Earlier this year, Bakkt raised doubts in a regulatory filing about its ability to stay in business. In it, Bakkt warned that it did not believe it had readily available cash “sufficient to fund our operations for the (next) 12 months.”
But Trump’s election has been a boon to the crypto industry, including Bakkt. Last week, bitcoin hit an all-time high.
“Since the U.S. Presidential election, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in trading volumes driven by favorable macro sentiment and rising crypto prices,” Andy Main, president and CEO of Bakkt, said in a statement last week announcing the company’s third quarter results.
In the first 12 days of November, Bakkt traded $279 million in trading volume, already surpassing all of October’s volume by $114 million, Main said on a call with shareholders.
Bakkt said its revenue surged more than 60% in the third quarter to $328.4 million. Bakkt also trimmed its losses from $51.7 million in the third quarter last year to just $6.3 million in third quarter this year.
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