Intercontinental Exchange Says Crypto Chief Exits After 4 Months

(Bloomberg) -- Intercontinental Exchange Inc. said Mike Blandina has resigned as chief executive officer of Bakkt LLC, its majority-owned Bitcoin-futures platform, after four months on the job.

Blandina is joining JPMorgan Chase & Co. as head of wholesale payments technology, according to a memo to staff. A JPMorgan spokeswoman confirmed the hiring. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment

Blandina had succeeded Kelly Loeffler, the founding CEO of Bakkt, when she was selected by Georgia’s governor to fill one of the state’s U.S. Senate seats. David Clifton, ICE’s vice president of mergers and acquisitions and integration, was named interim CEO.

The executive shuffle comes a month after Bakkt announced it raised another $300 million in funding from ICE and other investors. As part of that funding round, Bakkt acquired Bridge2 Solutions, a provider to loyalty programs for seven of the top 10 financial institutions and two of the largest U.S. airlines.

Bakkt remains a smaller participant in the Bitcoin futures market, which is dominated by less regulated exchanges based in Asia such as Binance and Huobi, according to cryptocurrency data tracker Skew.com.

Atlanta-based ICE is also the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange.

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