Bakkt hires former PayPal and Google exec as Chief Product Officer

Bakkt, a cryptocurrency platform run by Intercontinental Exchange, has added another member to its executive team.

The firm announced Thursday that Mike Blandina has joined as its Chief Product Officer to lead Bakkt's "efforts to converge a trusted ecosystem for digital assets with payments use cases, two elements of Bakkt that help bring real world applications to bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies." Blandina was previously CTO of OneMarket, a retail technology startup. He also held senior engineering roles at PayPal and Google.

As part of the announcement, Bakkt CEO Kelly Loeffler acknowledged the stream of delays the firm has faced since its launch. However, Loeffler states that "as we work through regulatory approvals, we are mindful that the infrastructure we are building has the potential to create more opportunities for digital assets to grow in relevance and trust — by being more secure, investible and useful," and that "as a former marathoner, this point in time recalls the stage in the training regimen when you’re putting in long runs with your training team."