Digital asset company Bakkt announced a partnership with Tech giant Google on Friday. This project “is to extend the reach and usability of digital assets to meet rapidly evolving consumer demand and preferences.” The partnership will introduce digital assets to millions of consumers. And also make payments more accessible.
Bakkt’s New Partnership With Google
Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, founded Bakkt in 2018. The digital assets marketplace enables consumers to buy, sell, send and spend digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.
This partnership will enable Bakkt users to add their virtual Bakkt Visa Debit Card (“Bakkt Card”) into Google Pay. Subsequently, the users will be able to purchase goods and services anywhere that accepts Google Pay. Digital assets, like Bitcoin, in the users’ wallets, will be converted to fiat currency for these payments to occur.
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Additionally, Bakkt announced that it has selected Google Cloud as a preferred cloud provider. The company will market its solutions powered by Google Cloud to retailers and merchants in the U.S. The digital assets marketplace also plans to leverage the Cloud’s industry-leading tools to generate new business insights. The new analytics would integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning, and geolocation functionality on its platform. These insights will provide Bakkt consumers with expanded loyalty redemption options. At the same time, Bakkt partners will have data on valuable consumer behavior patterns.
Total crypto market at $2.34 Trillion | Source: Crypto Total Market Cap from TradingView.com
Bakkt CEO, Gavin Michael, commented on the partnership. “This partnership is a testament to Bakkt’s strong position in the digital asset marketplace, to empower consumers to enjoy their digital assets in a real-time, secure, reliable manner.” He also said that partnering with Google Cloud will enable Bakkt to make the platform more innovative. And develop it to scale to meet the needs of millions of users.
Kirsten Kliphouse, Google Cloud President of North America, mentioned that the company has been at the forefront of accelerating digital commerce. And by doing so has powered many retailers and merchants. “We are proud to help Bakkt accelerate and scale the availability of their innovative solutions, powered by our technologies.”
Bakkt Drives Crypto Adoption
The new partnership is one of Bakkt’s many attempts to expand crypto adoption in the U.S. It comes just weeks after the company announced that the Bakkt app had linked one billion points and miles since it launched its digital wallet app in March.
In August, Bakkt partnered with Quiznos restaurants to launch the first physical location where customers can pay for their food in BTC in Denver.
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Bakkt is the most recent of several Cryptocurrency platforms to add Google Pay. Bitcoin payment service provider Bitpay added Google Pay for U.S. cardholders in August. Coinbase also added Google Pay as well as Apple Pay for its cardholders in June.
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