Bakkt shares skyrocket after partnering with Mastercard and Fiserv

The share price of the Intercontinental Exchange-backed crypto services company Bakkt ($BKKT) has surged as it unveiled two partnerships with major global payments firms.

On Monday 25 Oct., Mastercard announced it would be working with digital asset platform Bakkt to allow its customers based in the United States to buy, sell and hold digital assets through custodial wallets. On the same day, global payment provider Fiserv also announced a strategic collaboration with Bakkt to offer merchant-facing digital asset services.

The news drove a bullish day of trading for BKKT, with the stock rallying by more than 50% outside of regular trading hours from Friday Oct. 22’s closing price of $9.15, before surging a further 120% to close out Monday Oct. 25 at $30.60.

While Bakkt’s debut on the New York Stock Exchange saw its share price pull back by 6% to close out its first day of trading, BKKT has since rallied more than 236% from $9.09 to $30.60 over the past five days.

Bakkt went public on Oct. 18 through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company deal that valued the company at $2.1 billion. Bakkt’s market capitalization currently sits at more than $4 billion.

Related: Mastercard plans to allow US partners to offer crypto loyalty rewards

In August 2018, Coinbase investor and New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange announced it would launch a digital asset platform dubbed Bakkt.

The following year, Bakkt launched its highly anticipated physically "deliverable" Bitcoin futures contracts for institutional investors.

After initially claiming to pioneer physically-delivered Bitcoin futures contracts, the firm received criticism over their cash settled product design. In response, Bakkt fully collateralized its daily futures contracts.

The firm launched a retail crypto asset payments app in April of this year, while its futures contracts posted record volume earlier this month.