Bakkt boss to leave for JPMorgan: memo

By Anna Irrera and Noor Zainab Hussain

(Reuters) - The top boss of cryptocurrency trading platform Bakkt, Mike Blandina, is leaving to join JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE: JPM) to work in payments, according to a memo from the bank seen by Reuters.

Blandina will join the Wall Street bank in May as head of wholesale payments technology, according to the memo.

"Mike (Blandina) joins the firm with over 30 years of experience and a broad background and expertise in the payments industry," said Mike Grimaldi, chief information officer for JPMorgan's corporate & investment bank.

Bakkt's majority-owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc (NYSE: ICE) on Thursday named David Clifton as interim chief executive officer to replace Blandina

Clifton joined ICE in 2008 and is currently its vice president, M&A and integration.

Blandina, who was appointed chief executive officer of Bakkt in late December, had taken over https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20191223005251/en/Intercontinental-Exchange-Appoints-Mike-Blandina-CEO-Bakkt from Kelly Loeffler, who was appointed to the U.S. Senate.

Bakkt, one of the most well-known cryptocurrency initiatives by an established financial institution, offers trading in physically delivered bitcoin futures - bitcoins are delivered to the Bakkt warehouse when the contracts expire.

(Reporting by Anna Irrera in New York and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Vinay Dwivedi, Bernard Orr)

---

Serious News for Serious Traders! Try StreetInsider.com Premium Free!

---

You May Also Be Interested In

• ICE raises $3.71 billion in senior notes to fund MarketAxess deal
• US says it will impose 'toughest sanctions in history' on Iran
• South Korea's SK Hynix considers building memory chip plant in Japan, Hankyoreh reports