Bakkt, the New York Stock Exchange-listed crypto and loyalty company, is spending up to $200 million to acquire Apex Crypto, which enables fintechs and merchant apps to integrate cryptocurrency trading. Bakkt is a digital asset platform founded by NYSE owner ICE that combines cryptocurrency trading with loyalty, including integrating major rewards programs.

Apex Crypto provides a turnkey solution for fintechs so they can incorporate crypto into their offerings. The solution includes account opening, trading and custody. It doesn’t offer staking or NFT yet, but plans to.

The $200 million deal includes $55 million in cash at closing and $45 million at the end of the year, subject to performance. An additional $100 million could be paid based on performance through 2025.

Bakkt is buying Apex Crypto from larger Apex Fintech Solutions and has signed a deal to provide Bakkt’s crypto offering to Apex’s 220 fintech clients.

“We found a unique asset in Apex Crypto, which will broaden our crypto customer base, give us faster speed to market for new crypto capabilities, and serve as an additional avenue for ongoing sales to a crypto-savvy audience through Apex Fintech Solutions”. said Gavin Michael, CEO of Bakkt. “With the addition of this complementary business, we believe we are poised to be a cryptocurrency provider of choice for financial institutions, fintechs, merchants or loyalty programs.”

Last year, Mastercard partnered with Bakkt in order to launch a crypto-as-a-service to Mastercard customers, although it was not an exclusive relationship. The card company recently announced a similar deal with Paxos.

Bakkt was founded by NYSE owner ICE in 2018 and initially launched crypto derivatives. In 2020, it completed a $300 million Series B round, with a large portion of that going to acquire Bridge 2 Solutions. The technology firm provides solutions to 4,500 loyalty programs and incentives for employees. A year later, Bakkt launched its rewards app. The rewards will undoubtedly be a major application of blockchain and crypto, but Bakkt perhaps got a bit ahead of the game.

In 2021, Bakkt was listed through a SPAC deal with an enterprise value of over $2 billion. Shortly after the SPAC merger was concluded in October 2021, the share price reached $42, but today it is only $2. ICE owned a 68% economic stake in the company at the time of listing and last week announced that it had reduced the value of its stake from $1.5 billion in June 2022 to $400 million on September 30.