Bakkt Brokerage: A Seamless Path to Crypto for Neobanks

Neobanks have redefined the consumer financial experience – prioritizing simplicity, agility, and digital-native, user-centric design. As competition in the digital banking space intensifies and user expectations continue to rise, the ability to offer crypto capabilities alongside checking, savings, and payments is quickly shifting from an innovative add-on to a strategic imperative.

That’s where Bakkt Brokerage comes in. Purpose-built to support neobanks with speed, scale, and compliance, Bakkt offers a turnkey infrastructure for crypto integration – enabling forward-thinking neobank platforms to grow their offerings, attract new users, and maintain the intuitive experiences they’re known for. Whether launching crypto rewards, enabling paycheck-to-crypto features, or embedding low-fee trading, Bakkt Brokerage helps neobanks stay ahead of the curve.

Bridging the Infrastructure Gap

Adding crypto to your existing product suite shouldn’t require a total rebuild. Yet for many neobanks, the obstacles are real: regulatory complexity, fragmented infrastructure, new vendor relationship management, and the risk of slowing down product velocity.

Bakkt removes these common roadblocks. As a U.S.-regulated, publicly traded company with licensing coverage across all 50 states (including an NYDFS BitLicense and Money Transmitter Licenses) Bakkt offers a ready-made compliance framework that fits seamlessly into the neobank ecosystem. Platforms can rapidly deploy Bakkt’s crypto solutions tailored to their value propositions and go live in just 30 to 45 days – avoiding the cost, time, and overhead of building from scratch.

Unique Crypto Solutions, Built for Scale

Bakkt Brokerage was designed to help neobanks evolve without compromise. Our solution supports a wide array of unique crypto use cases, from low-or-no-fee crypto trading, batch trading allocations, and integrated views of crypto holdings alongside traditional IRAs and savings accounts.

Liquidity is foundational to performance and pricing – and Bakkt’s robust infrastructure delivers it at scale. With deep market coverage and high-throughput connectivity, Bakkt offers:

• Consolidated access to top global liquidity providers
• Low-latency execution with minimal slippage
• Customizable liquidity streams for specific user cases
• 24/7/365 uptime with real-time price discovery

For neobanks, this means optimized execution, faster time to market, and the ability to support innovative features like dollar-cost averaging, batch allocations, and paycheck-to-crypto flows – all while preserving the seamless user experience customers expect.

Embedded Crypto, Digital-First Flexibility

Bakkt enables neobanks to offer crypto services whole staying true to their brand and user-first ethos. Here’s how we do it:

• API-Powered Integration: Deploy new crypto features without rearchitecting your backend. Bakkt’s existing integrations with leading payments solutions and banking platforms empower neobanks to deliver the seamless, consolidated user experiences their customers demand – while leaving core systems intact.
• Compliance-First by Design: With full regulatory coverage across the U.S., Bakkt simplifies KYC/AML and licensing obligations. Our infrastructure and documentation make it easy to meet compliance obligations efficiently – without the burden of navigating complex crypto regulations independently.
• Tailored Use Case Support: Whether offering no-fee crypto trading, integrated portfolio views, or unique reward structures, Bakkt’s infrastructure is flexible enough to meet your vision. Neobanks gain the ability to roll out compelling crypto features like easy dollar-cost averaging and instant paycheck-to-crypto deposits. Many clients go from concept to live offering in a matter of weeks, not months.
• White-Labeled Experience: Keep your front-end uniquely yours. Bakkt’s white-labeled solutions power crypto capabilities behind the scenes while preserving your platform’s unique branding and ethos – giving you complete control over the customer experience.

Secure, Compliant, and Built to Last

Neobanks succeed by building user trust – meaning any crypto integration must meet the same standards of reliability and security your customers expect from your core services.

Bakkt doesn’t just meet those expectations – we exceed them. As the custodian of record, supported by a network of sub-custodians, Bakkt Brokerage provides institutional-grade asset protection. Our systems are SOC 1 Type 2 and SOC 2 Type 2 certified, undergo annual penetration testing, and are governed by strict audit and risk management frameworks. That infrastructure supports millions of users today, making Bakkt an ideal provider for crypto’s increasingly regulated future.

Evolve with Confidence

For neobanks, adding crypto is no longer a nice to have – it’s a critical competitive advantage. Bakkt Brokerage bridges the gap between innovation and regulation, enabling digital-native platforms to deliver crypto trading, deposits, and more without compromising their unique brand, signature speed, or trust.

With the power of our Bakkt’s technology, neobanks can access deep, aggregated liquidity for efficient execution, support a wide range of crypto use cases through robust APIs, and maintain seamless user experiences through white-labeled front ends – all while scaling on a secure, compliant infrastructure trusted by the industry’s leading institutions.

The bottom line? Crypto is a catalyst for long-term growth – and Bakkt is your trusted partner for getting there. To take the next step, reach out to us here. To learn more, browse the resources below (and read more on our Developer Portal).

Key Resources

Everything you need to get started with Bakkt Brokerage.

Account Opening

Clients can facilitate cryptocurrency access for their customers by enabling them to open accounts with Bakkt. Bakkt must collect customer information to validate and support these accounts, using API endpoints to submit and retrieve information, upload documents, make account updates, and more. After an account is opened, it can be funded for cryptocurrency transactions.

Read more here.

A step-by-step guide to how trades are executed on Bakkt Brokerage, from market data to order completion, as well as settlement and funding workflows.

Trade Flow

1. Price quote sent – A liquidity provider sends a live price quote to Bakkt’s BBO system.
2. Create and mark up Best-Bid-Offer (BBO) – The BBO system aggregates quotes and applies any client-specific markup logic.
3. Market prices displayed – Those BBO prices are streamed to the client’s system.
4. Trade order initiated – The customer submits a buy or sell order via the client interface.
5. Order sent to Bakkt OMS – The client’s system routes the trade to Bakkt’s Order Management System.
6. Marketable orders sent; non-marketable rest – The OMS attempts to match and route executable orders to liquidity providers; resting orders are held.
7. Order executed (if filled) and system alerted – If the trade is filled, Bakkt confirms execution and notifies the client system.
8. Execution report sent – A formal execution report is generated and delivered to the client.
9. Cash movement requested – A cash movement is triggered to settle the trade.

Settlement Flow

1. Bakkt OMS requests fiat settlement – Once a trade is filled, the OMS signals the Trade System (BTS) to begin fiat settlement.
2. Funds movement logged between accounts – Internal ledgering reflects movement between the customer and firm accounts in BTS.
3. Client revenue recorded – Bakkt captures the revenue share due to the client from the transaction.
4. Liquidity provider settlement completed – Bakkt settles with the liquidity provider based on net activity.
5. Revenue shared – Bakkt distributes earned revenue with the client, typically daily.

Funding Flow

1. Customer initiates a bank transfer – This could be an ACH, wire, or BaaS-based request to fund their trading account.
2. Client system and APIs initiate the move – Client-side systems call Bakkt’s APIs to initiate funding instructions.
3. Funds transferred to BTS – The money moves from the customer’s bank account into a Bakkt-linked customer account.
4. Funds credited to customer’s BTS account – Bakkt updates its ledger to reflect the available trading balance for the customer.

To explore more documentation, workflow details, and FAQs, check out our Developer Portal.