Intercontinental Exchange's Bakkt gets BitLicense from New York State

The New York State Department of Financial Services approves Intercontinental Exchange ([[ICE]] -0.3%) subsidiary Bakkt's application for virtual currency and money transmitter licenses, or a so-called BitLicense.The license will allow Bakkt Marketplace to offer its New York customers the ability to buy and sell virtual currency and will make Bakkt subject to DFS's supervision of its licensed activities.Since 2015, NY DFS has granted 29 virtual currency licenses or trust charters, including the virtual currency license announced today.Bakkt is developing a payments app that would give users the option to shop at merchants such as Starbucks when it debuts. ICE bought Bridge2 Solutions in February 2020, in part to help with developing the payments app.In January 2021, ICE agreed to combine Bakkt Holdings with Victory Park Capital-sponsored SPAC, VPC Impact Acquisitions Holding ([[VIH]] +3.4%), bringing the combined company's enterprise value to ~$2.1B.