Bakkt Predicting Sky-high Growth for ‘USD 3 Trillion’ Crypto Sector

Bakkt, the US-based crypto platform, owned by the Intercontinental Exchange Inc., is forecasting high rates of growth in the crypto industry over the next few years, as well as growth in associated industries, factors that may have influenced its own decision-making.

As reported yesterday, Bakkt is preparing to go public via a merger with blank-check firm VPC Impact Acquisition Holdings (VIH), and has used its own forecasting to value itself at the USD 2.1bn mark, post-merger.

And the reasoning behind the valuation appears to be its belief that the cryptocurrency market will grow to the USD 3tn mark by 2025, an expansion of 432% on 2020 figures of USD 564 billion.

The firm also predicts the gift cards industry to grow by 99% in the same time period, as well as a rise of 90% in the loyalty points and miles industry. The in-game assets market is set to rise by 76%, per Bakkt’s reckoning, also in the same time period.

And Bakkt appears to imply that the categories, as well as securities and stocks, are interconnected, as they can be grouped together as digital assets – gaining popularity among end-users due in part to the coronavirus pandemic, higher adoption rates and the demand for increased payment options.

Indeed, there are now more arguments than ever to suggest that the lines between all of the above categories is becoming increasingly blurred: In Japan, crypto exchange operators include a number of major securities players like SBI, Monex and data provider FISCO, as well as the loyalty point firm REMIXpoint, the operator of the BITpoint crypto trading platform. The South Korean-Japanese firm Line is looking to integrate its chat app reward points with its own cryptoasset, with South Korea’s Kakao allegedly looking to do something very similar.

Also in South Korea, gaming giants like WeMade and Nexon have already taken the crypto plunge, with crypto exchanges, tokens and more.

And the popularity of crypto gift vouchers is skyrocketing globally, per data unveiled last year by crypto pay gateway Bitpay.

Bakkt says, for its part, that it has “fully integrated” with heavy-hitting gift card partners such as Starbucks, Subway and Home Depot, with “view only” loyalty sponsors such as Domino’s. The firm added that it is in talks with four major American airlines and three hotel loyalty groups – with “advanced discussions” in progress with Apple and a further two airlines, among others.

In a press release, the firm’s new CEO Gavin Michael stated,

“The average consumer holds a wealth of digital assets but rarely tracks their value and lacks the tools to manage and utilize them.”

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