Bakkt launches its digital wallet app, with partners including Starbucks and Best Buy; during its five-month invite-only beta period, it garnered 500,000+ users
Trading fiat currency for crypto—or frequent flier miles for lattes — Today, Bakkt is announcing the general availability …
Context & Ripple Effects
Bakkt's consumer push has been three years in the making: Intercontinental Exchange formed the company in 2018 alongside partners including Starbucks and Microsoft to build a regulated Bitcoin platform, then raised a $300M Series B on the promise of a consumer asset-management app. While waiting for that app, Bakkt built an institutional custody business with more than 70 clients — today's general availability is the moment the retail side finally ships.
The launch converts a five-month invite-only beta of 500,000-plus users into an open product whose marquee feature is spending, not just holding: converting crypto or loyalty points into purchases at Starbucks and Best Buy. It is the test of whether an exchange-owned wallet can win mainstream retail distribution — though related coverage shows the consumer app was ultimately shut down in 2023, two years after this debut.
First-order effects
- Starbucks and Best Buy instantly become the highest-profile places where consumers can spend converted crypto or loyalty points, giving both retailers a new redemption channel without building their own crypto infrastructure.
- Bakkt moves from gated beta to open availability for its 500,000-strong user base, shifting its focus from institutional custody toward consumer acquisition.
Second-order effects
- Competing consumer crypto wallets now face a rival with the backing of NYSE-owner Intercontinental Exchange and named retail partners — pushing them to secure equivalent merchant deals or differentiate on fees and custody.
- Retail loyalty programs gain a template for treating points as convertible assets rather than closed-loop currency, raising pressure on other merchants to decide whether to join or resist interoperable redemption.
Third-order effects
- If retail crypto spending fails to sustain engagement — as the later shutdown suggests it did — exchange-backed companies retreat to institutional lines like custody and B2B infrastructure, leaving everyday crypto payments an unsolved product problem despite blue-chip distribution.
- The episode becomes a cautionary data point in the 'wallet as permission layer' thesis: owning the consumer touchpoint matters only if spending behavior follows, otherwise wallets consolidate around whoever controls trading rails.
The trend: Exchange-backed firms are discovering that signing big retail brands is easier than making consumer crypto spending stick, with wallets either maturing into payment layers or folding back into institutional businesses.