Georgia Governor Brian Kemp officially appointed Bakkt CEO to the U.S. Senate on Wednesday

The CEO of Bakkt, Kelly Loeffler has officially been appointed to the U.S. senate. There she will be filling the seat currently occupied by Senator Johnny Isakson. The On Friday the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported that Kemp was considering Loeffler. This was later confirmed earlier this week by the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, among other outlets.

Following this appointment, Loeffler will be taking office beginning January 1st 2020. Although it’s important to note that Isakson’s term will end in January 2023. Meaning that if Loeffler intends to serve past January 2021, she will have to run for election next year.

Kemp appointed Loeffler, against the reported wishes of President Donald Trump. As he expressed a preference for Rep. Doug Collins to take the senator’s position. Despite this, according to Politico, Loeffler has the backing of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.),.

Previously Loeffler has stated that she was “pro-Trump”. Coming forward in favor of his border wall, and against abortion and socialism. Although in her introductory remarks she has not addressed cryptocurrencies or bitcoin.

After Isakson announced he would retire on December 31st, 2019 for health reasons, Kemp opened an online application process for the position. Loeffler then applied for the position during the last day of the deadline.

Bakkt futures contracts settling

Loeffler has been serving the role as chief executive of Bakkt, which is a bitcoin-focused subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange. She has been serving this role since the entity’s announcement in August 2018. Under her leadership, Bakkt has successfully rolled out their physically settled bitcoin futures contracts, earlier this year.

Bakkt has announced recently its intention to produce a mobile application for Bitcoin (BTC) payments targeting consumers. As well they plan to launch custody services, along with options trading and cash settled futures trading. The latter is planned to be rolled out during the coming weeks.

As of yet it remains unclear who will take over as head of Bakkt after Loeffler takes up her new position as senator. A supposed natural successor to the role of CEO would be current COO and Adam White. Adam had served previously as an executive at Coinbase. A press release congratulated Loeffler on her new role as Senator. While noting that she would be stepping down from her current role at Bakkt before she is sworn in. This release has yet to address who might be taking over her position.