Crypto-trading platform stock surges 250% on Trump Media takeover talk

Shares of a cryptocurrency-trading platform more than tripled following a report that Donald Trump’s social media company was close to buying it.

Bakkt soared 162% to nearly $30 a share on Monday, boosting its market value to north of $400 million, after The Financial Times reported that Trump Media & Technology Group was nearing an all-stock purchase.

Shares of Bakkt jumped as much as 33% to about $40 in Tuesday’s premarket, or nearly 250% above its price before the news broke.

Trump Media — which counts the president-elect as its majority shareholder, has his initials as its ticker, and owns Truth Social — popped 17% on Monday but fell 7% ahead of Tuesday’s open.

Intercontinental Exchange, which owns the New York Stock Exchange, holds a 55% stake in Bakkt. Cryptos and related assets have soared in value since Trump’s victory in the presidential election this month as traders wager they’ll face a more crypto-friendly regulatory environment under the new administration.

“Since the US presidential election, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in trading volumes driven by favorable macro sentiment and rising crypto prices,” Bakkt CEO Andy Main wrote in the company’s third-quarter earnings release last week.

Bakkt’s trading volumes for this month crossed $279 million by November 12, already exceeding the $165 million of transactions for October.

Bakkt and Trump Media have some notable ties. The crypto platform’s first chief executive, Kelly Loeffler, is cochairing the committee organizing Trump’s inauguration in January.

Trump Media shares roughly quadrupled to more than $50 between late September and late October in anticipation of a Trump win, but have slumped since then to about $33 at Monday’s close.

The company’s market value remained above $7 billion at Monday’s close, dwarfing the $2.6 million of net sales it generated during the first nine months of this year.