Former SoftBank executive Akshay Naheta has been appointed as co-CEO of Bakkt, aiming to revitalize the challenged crypto trading platform.
In a recent announcement, Bakkt disclosed that Akshay Naheta has joined as co-chief executive officer to spearhead efforts in revitalizing the American crypto trading and custody platform. Naheta will serve alongside current CEO Andy Main and will also become a member of Bakkt’s board.
Prior to his role at Bakkt, Naheta founded Distributed Technologies Research, a company dedicated to developing global payments infrastructure.
“We believe that Akshay joining the leadership team and integration of DTR’s technology with Bakkt will propel us from a leading crypto technology platform and liquidity provider into a more comprehensive, utility-based, institutional digital assets trading and payments platform.”
Andy Main
Naheta’s firm is anticipated to amalgamate its payments technology with Bakkt’s trading and brokerage services, pending necessary regulatory approvals. Notably, while at SoftBank, Naheta played a key role in a $4 billion investment in Nvidia in 2017, yielding impressive returns.
Since going public in 2021 through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), Bakkt’s stock has plummeted over 62% this year, and the firm has lost significant clients such as Bank of America and Webull. Nonetheless, Bakkt maintains essential regulatory permits, including the BitLicense from the New York State Department of Financial Services.
