Bakkt Onboards Former Google and PayPal Executive as Chief Product Officer

Announced April 11th 2019, Bakkt has officially hired former PayPal Vice President of Engineering and Google Engineering Director-Payments Mike Blandina as CPO. Blandina will bring his experience to build both products and payment features on the developing Bakkt platform.

Former Google and PayPal Executive Mike Blandina Joins Bakkt – Explained

Bakkt is the Intercontinental Exchange’s (ICE) developing digital asset trading platform and crypto custody service.

In a recent publication, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler revealed Blandina’s hiring:

“I’m pleased to share the news that Mike Blandina has joined as Chief Product Officer. 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. We are thrilled to have Mike as a leader on our team as we build an innovative platform for securing and transacting with digital assets.”

Loeffler went on to detail Blandina’s 25 years of experience related to the financial payment industry.

Blandina’s experience goes beyond Google and Paypal, to include positions such as the CTO of Blackhawk Network and a position with OneMarket.

How Regulatory Approval has Brought Delays for Bakkt’s Launch

The highly anticipated Bakkt platform has seen numerous delays in its roadmap.

It initially planned to offer Bitcoin futures trading in December of 2018. Despite raising $182 million in its first funding round, the platform continues to remain in a state of ongoing development.

The cause of such lagging has reportedly centered around regulatory approval— a significant distinction between security tokens and other unregulated digital assets.

The leadership behind Bakkt has assured the industry that it will continue to make progress, with a target on long-term viability.

According to Loeffler,

“As we work through regulatory approvals, 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.”

What do you think of Bakkt bringing on a former Google and PayPal executive? Is this precisely what the team needs at this time? We’d like to know what you think in the comments section below.

Image courtesy of Bakkt.