Buy Starbucks coffee with crypto via Bakkt, the recent favourite of the crypto community. According to a report by Cointelegraph, Starbucks mobile app users will soon be given the option to pay for their drinks with “Bakkt Cash.” Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), parent company of the Bitcoin derivatives provider, had declared back in August 2018 that the coffee giant was looking at retail applications for crypto payments.
We’re also reducing payment costs for merchants which improves their bottom line. Open your @Starbucks app to see our first direct integration and select @Bakkt to sign up for our Early Access Program pic.twitter.com/sZ3YlE0Sj9
— ADAM WHITE (@WHITEADAML) MARCH 16, 2020
From the Blog Post
Bakkt launched two years ago with the vision of building trust in and unlocking the value of digital assets for institutions and consumers alike. Since then, we have been focused on delivering that vision. In 2019 we helped launch the first end-to-end regulated market for bitcoin and an institutional bitcoin custody offering too.
At Bakkt, we take a broad view of digital assets. Digital assets include things as diverse as loyalty and rewards points, in-game assets, merchant stored value, and cryptocurrencies, and collectively represent nearly $1 trillion in consumer spending power. Despite the size of this market, consumers still find digital assets to be difficult to access, confusing to keep track of, and challenging to use.
Bakkt gives users control over their digital assets. Whether it’s miles from your favorite airline, loyalty points from the local grocery store, or bitcoin you’ve purchased, the Bakkt app enables you to aggregate all of these assets into a single digital wallet. In just a few taps you can use those assets to shop at your favorite merchants, send them to family and friends, or convert them to cash. We believe that you hold more value than you realize and we’re here to help you track, spend, and send your digital assets however you want.
Buy Starbucks Coffee with Crypto, made possible by Bakkt cash.
About Bakkt
Intercontinental Exchange (NYSE:ICE), a leading operator of global exchanges, clearing houses, data and listings services, announced today that it plans to form a new company, Bakkt, which intends to leverage Microsoft cloud solutions to create an open and regulated, global ecosystem for digital assets. The new company is working with a marquee group of organizations including BCG, Microsoft, Starbucks, and others, to create an integrated platform that enables consumers and institutions to buy, sell, store and spend digital assets on a seamless global network.
The Bakkt ecosystem is expected to include federally regulated markets and warehousing along with merchant and consumer applications. Its first use cases will be for trading and conversion of Bitcoin versus fiat currencies, as Bitcoin is today the most liquid digital currency. The effort is designed to address evolving needs in the estimated $270 billion digital asset marketplace.
Applications for digital currencies continue to develop alongside regulatory frameworks and rising investment in blockchain technology which, halfway through 2018, has already exceeded all of 2017, according to KPMG. By leveraging trusted market infrastructure, Bakkt is being engineered to help the digital asset markets evolve securely and efficiently while supporting transaction flows.
“In bringing regulated, connected infrastructure together with institutional and consumer applications for digital assets, we aim to build confidence in the asset class on a global scale, consistent with our track record of bringing transparency and trust to previously unregulated markets,” said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Intercontinental Exchange.
