- Bakkt Holdings has agreed to acquire stablecoin payment infrastructure provider Distributed Technologies Research Ltd. (DTR).
- Bakkt says bringing DTR in-house should accelerate time-to-market for stablecoin settlement, reduce third-party dependency, and support future revenue in payments and banking use cases.
Bakkt Holdings Inc. has agreed to acquire Distributed Technologies Research Ltd., a stablecoin payments infrastructure provider, in an all-stock deal. It is expected to deepen the company’s push into onchain settlement as mainstream finance and payments firms experiment with tokenized cash.
Shares of Bakkt (NYSE: BKKT) rose over 18% in U.S. trading Monday, ending at about $19.25, up roughly $2.97 from the prior close.
Under the definitive agreement, Bakkt will issue Class A shares equal to 31.5% of a contractually defined “Bakkt Share Number” tied to a cooperation agreement the companies signed in March 2025, when they began integrating DTR’s technology into Bakkt’s platform.
Based on the share number referenced in Bakkt’s announcement, the issuance would be about 9.13 million Class A shares to DTR shareholders, including DTR’s chief executive and principal owner, Akshay Naheta, though the final count may change before closing.
The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including regulatory clearances and approval by Bakkt stockholders. Intercontinental Exchange Inc., the exchange operator that incubated Bakkt and remains one of its largest shareholders, said it would vote its roughly 31% stake in favor of the acquisition.
Bakkt said its board formed an independent special committee—directors Colleen Brown and Mike Alfred—to negotiate and evaluate the deal, a governance step companies sometimes use in transactions involving insiders or potential conflicts. Naheta is both the founder of DTR and Bakkt’s co-chief executive officer.
From partnership to purchase
The acquisition formalizes a relationship that started last year. In filings, Bakkt described the March 19, 2025 cooperation agreement as providing it with payment-processing technology, APIs and infrastructure from DTR for global payments enablement in jurisdictions where Bakkt or affiliates operate.
Naheta joined Bakkt’s leadership in 2025 after building DTR as a payments-focused fintech bridging traditional rails and blockchain-based settlement, following senior roles at SoftBank where he worked on large technology investments.
In a press release shared with AlexaBlockchain, Bakkt framed the deal as a way to accelerate its “stablecoin settlement” roadmap, reduce reliance on third parties and expand revenue opportunities across payments and banking use cases.
Stablecoin settlement as a payments battleground
Bakkt’s move lands as stablecoins increasingly show up in corporate pilots and cross-border payment discussions, driven by the promise of faster settlement and reduced complexity versus correspondent-banking chains. Consulting firm McKinsey described 2025 as a potential inflection point for tokenized cash in payments, while also noting risks and operational hurdles that financial institutions must manage.
DTR has marketed its platform as infrastructure that connects national payment systems with stablecoin/fiat rails for business payments.
What changes at Bakkt
Alongside the deal, Bakkt said it intends to change its corporate name to “Bakkt, Inc.” effective Jan. 22, 2026, while keeping its New York Stock Exchange listing and “BKKT” ticker.
The company also announced plans to host an Investor Day on March 17, 2026, signaling it expects to provide more detail on strategy and integration timelines in the coming months.
Bakkt has undergone multiple strategic pivots since it was formed within ICE and later taken public via a merger with a blank-check company in 2021. In recent quarters, the company has emphasized infrastructure and partnerships rather than operating as a consumer-facing crypto brand—an approach that aligns with the economics of payments, where distribution and compliance often matter as much as technology.
Deal mechanics and dilution
Because consideration is paid in stock, existing Bakkt shareholders will be diluted if the transaction closes. The 31.5% issuance is calculated off a fully diluted Class A base immediately prior to closing, per Bakkt’s SEC filing.
The 8-K describing the purchase agreement also outlines termination provisions, including a potential termination fee in certain scenarios, underscoring that the transaction remains subject to board and shareholder processes.
The acquisition is a bet that owning core settlement plumbing will help it compete in a crowded market of crypto-native payment firms and bank-adjacent infrastructure providers trying to make stablecoins usable in everyday business workflows.
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