Bakkt, Inc. 2026 Q2 Earnings Call

Sir, you may begin. Good afternoon and welcome to Bakkt's second quarter 2026 earnings call.

Joining me on the call are Akshay Naheta, our Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Ishag, our Chief Commercial Officer, and Karen Alexander, our Chief Financial Officer. Today's discussion contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those reflected or implied. We refer you to the cautionary language in our earnings release, in this presentation, and in our SEC filings, including the risk factors set forth in our most recent Form 10-K and our Form 10-Q for the period ending March 31st, 2026. Today's discussion also includes references to non-GAAP measures, including EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA.

Reconciliations to their nearest GAAP measures, along with definitions and methodology for our operational metrics, Total Transacting Volume, Monthly Active Users, and Strategic Asset Value are included in this presentation. With that, I will turn the call over to our CEO, Akshay Naheta.

Akshay? Thank you, Cody, and thank you all for joining us today.

The clearest way to understand Bakkt today is as one platform powered by three complementary engines, Markets, Agent, and Global. Each engine addresses a significant opportunity on its own, but together they create a compounding flywheel that can become more valuable with every product, client, and market we add. Bakkt Markets is the regulated infrastructure layer. It provides the rails for payments, settlement, trading, and over time, the tokenization of real-world assets. The financial system was not designed for continuous global activity. We are building infrastructure for a world in which value can move securely, programmatically, and around the clock. Bakkt Agent is the intelligence and distribution layer. It transforms that infrastructure into a simpler and more powerful financial experience.

For our clients, it creates a single platform through which they can launch differentiated financial products and deepen their customer relationships. For their customers, it can make managing and moving money dramatically more intuitive. Finally, Bakkt Global expands our strategic reach. It provides access to important markets, differentiated assets, and scale distribution opportunities that would be slower and more capital-intensive to build organically. As those positions develop, they can bring additional relationships, capabilities, and opportunities into the broader Bakkt platform. Beneath all three engines is the same shared foundation, regulatory compliance and KYC, combined with programmable 24/7 stablecoin settlements. That common infrastructure is important because it means we are not building three separate businesses. We are building one integrated operating system, and that is where the flywheel becomes more powerful.

Markets provides the rails, agents bring intelligence, customers, and distribution onto those rails, and Global expands the assets, relationships, and markets that can connect to the platform. More distribution can generate more activity. More activity can make the infrastructure more valuable. A stronger platform can support more products, partnerships, and strategic opportunities. Each engine gives Bakkt a meaningful way to win, and together they create a platform designed to compound. With every turn of the flywheel, every product, client, and market we add, the system becomes more valuable and harder to replicate. Last quarter, I introduced this scorecard as a qualitative management view of our execution. It is not financial guidance. It is a disciplined way to show where Bakkt is progressing, where we are investing, and where our attention remains focused. The headline this quarter is clear. Execution is accelerating across the platform.

Every category is either stable or improved. Six of the 8 categories are now at 75 or above, and the areas that required the greatest attention are also showing the fastest improvement. Partners and distribution increased 20 points, the largest movement on the page. Following the DTR close, we rebuilt the commercial organization, sharpened the offering, and advanced the integrations and partnerships required to bring more clients and more activity onto the platform. IC 50 remains our most important execution priority, but we are entering this next phase with a materially stronger commercial foundation, better visibility into upcoming activations, and growing confidence in the potential for flows to scale meaningfully as those integrations come online. Team and talent increased 15 points to 75. We have strengthened the leadership bench, made substantial progress integrating DTR into our platform, and aligned the organization around a clear set of commercial priorities.

AI-enabled execution is also becoming increasingly embedded across the company, helping our teams operate with greater speed and leverage. That discipline is contributing directly to operational efficiency, which increased by 10 points. We are building a leaner, faster, and more scalable operating model. One designed to support substantially greater activity without creating the cost structure of a traditional financial institution. The broader foundation continues to strengthen. Regulatory is at 85. Infrastructure and technology are both at 80, with the DTR rails now in-house and the agent platform on track for the second half. Financial strength remains at 75, supported by a balance sheet with no long-term debt, and global network has increased to 75 as our strategic positions and international relationships continue to develop. The important shift is the stage Bakkt has now reached. Much of the foundational build is in place.

Our focus is increasingly moving towards external outcomes, launching new products, activating clients, and scaling transaction flows. Each engine has a clear ownership, and we intend to remain transparent and accountable for the progress we make. The foundation is in place, execution is strengthening, and commercial activation is now the next major growth unlock. With that, let me turn the call over to Daniel to take you through Markets and Agent.

Thank you, Akshay, and good afternoon, everyone. Before I turn to the platform, let me briefly share what I've seen in my first three months. Akshay has aligned product, engineering, compliance, and sales around the same commercial priorities, and that alignment is translating into faster, more coordinated execution. The market we're building into has continued to expand this quarter. Stablecoin market capitalization reached an all-time high of approximately $320 billion in May 2026. Adjusted on-chain stablecoin volume reached approximately $1.79 trillion in June, a new monthly high, and global cross-border payment flows reached approximately $208 trillion in 2025. Against markets of this scale, focused adoption across priority clients, corridors, and use cases can drive a step change in volume from our current base. Today, most of that money still moves through traditional correspondent banking. That means multi-day settlement, intermediary fees, FX costs, failed transactions, and limited transparency.

The further you move away from the major currencies, the more pronounced these problems become. That is exactly what our infrastructure has been built to address. Let me bring you up to date where the platform stood at the end of the second quarter. There are four key numbers. One core KYC framework across the product set, access across more than 63 countries, support for 19 currencies, and connectivity across 10 public blockchains. Behind those numbers are four production APIs, all live today. This quarter, we consolidated onboarding across the product suite. A client can complete the core compliance process once and use that foundation as it activates additional products, with product and market-specific requirements applied where needed. The second is our stablecoin API, which provides the settlement rail from fiat to stablecoins and back again.

Wire and ACH went live this quarter, closing the loop between traditional bank rails and stablecoin settlement within a single API. That gives clients faster settlement. More importantly, it gives them settlement speed they can turn into a commercial advantage for their own customers. The third is Gyzer, our chat-native interface for cross-border payments. Gyzer has supported live fiat payment corridors since last September and is now integrated into Bakkt's in-house payment stack. The fourth is the Bakkt Widget, our embeddable on and off-ramp. Partners can integrate it directly into their own platforms and deliver the service within their existing customer experience. The widget combines the other APIs and demonstrates the strength of the platform. It is modular, but the modules work together. The principle is simple: integrate once, then activate what you need. One core integration, one common regulated foundation, and an expanding menu of products and services.