Bakkt appoints Dan O’Prey as Executive Vice President of Digital Assets

By Pavithra R

Bakkt, the digital asset marketplace behind the Bakkt App, has announced that tech industry veteran Dan O’Prey has joined the company as Executive Vice President of Digital Assets, effective July 12, 2021.

O’Prey will focus on accelerating the go-forward strategy for cryptocurrency and digital assets in the new position, with a specific focus on prioritization and commercialization of Bakkt’s crypto-related offerings for individual and institutional customers.

“With over seven years of blockchain experience at pioneering organizations, Dan brings an extensive and impressive background to Bakkt at a time when we are rapidly expanding our offerings and laying the groundwork for our long-term growth trajectory. We look forward to pulling from Dan’s deep industry knowledge to expand our offerings as we unite the digital assets ecosystem unlike any player in the market,” said Gavin Michael, Chief Executive Officer, Bakkt.

Most recently, Dan served as Chief Strategy Officer (CSO) at Digital Asset, creators of the Daml smart contract language. In that role, he was responsible for defining the corporate strategy, aligning the top-level product strategy, and oversaw marketing and communications across the firm. Dan joined Digital Asset as part of the acquisition of Hyperledger, the first permissioned distributed ledger platform, where he was co-founder and CEO and was instrumental in establishing and operating Hyperledger as a project at the Linux Foundation.

“I’m thrilled to be taking a role pivotal to Bakkt’s expansion, as the industry enters the next phase of mass adoption. We sit perfectly at that intersection of secure institutional infrastructure and disruptive consumer technology, key components that enable the mainstream utility of bitcoin and other digital assets,” said Dan.

Launched in 2018, Bakkt is leading a new era of financial services innovation, focused on reimagining and unlocking the value of digital assets like rewards and loyalty points, gift cards, and cryptocurrency owned by Intercontinental Exchange (ICE). The company’s goal is to make all digital assets as liquid as any fiat currency. The Bakkt Visa Debit Card is issued by Sutton Bank, Member FDIC, pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.