29.07.2025 22:36

Bakkt Holdings, a firm focused on Bitcoin treasury management, experienced a dramatic 40% stock price drop in pre-market trading following a poorly received stock offering. This significant decline underscores the risks associated with pivoting corporate strategies, even within the seemingly promising cryptocurrency market.

The company's plan to raise a comparatively meager $75 million through a stock offering, issuing both common shares and warrants at prices substantially below the prevailing market rate, proved deeply unpopular with investors. This lowball offering, priced at $10 per share for common stock and $9.9999 for warrants, sharply contrasted with the then-current share price of $17, triggering immediate concerns about the company's valuation and future prospects.

This significant drop followed Bakkt's complete divestment from its loyalty business, a core component of its previous operational model. Sold for a comparatively small $11 million to a Roman DBDR subsidiary, this sale signaled a complete strategic shift towards becoming a "pure-play crypto infrastructure company," as CEO Andy Main explained. This transformation, however, is intended to be funded by a much larger capital raise of up to $1 billion, primarily aimed at bolstering its Bitcoin treasury and investing in digital asset technology.

Bakkt's ambitious plan to build a substantial Bitcoin treasury and offer services such as Bitcoin custody, stablecoin payments, and other unspecified digital asset technologies, has clearly failed to inspire confidence in the market. The underwhelming stock offering and the significant price drop highlight the challenges faced by companies undergoing major strategic overhauls, particularly within the volatile cryptocurrency sector. The experience serves as a cautionary tale for companies pursuing similar strategies.