American digital assets company Bakkt Holdings Inc. has released its fourth-quarter earnings report which shows a slight increase in revenue and expenses.
This increase is believed to have been contributed by another large impairment charge. A little lower than the FactSet estimated value of $16 million, Bakkt ended up with quarterly net revenue of $15.6 million, which at the same time was a 14% increase year-over-year.
Collectively, the American corporation’s full-year net revenue was around $54.6 million, a 38% increase year-over-year.
Gavin Michael, President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Bakkt said;
“We are proud of all that we accomplished throughout 2022 despite an incredibly difficult market environment. We delivered on our product roadmap, worked closely with our partners to go to market, added leading industry players to our partner network, and announced our acquisition of Apex Crypto.”
“While market conditions continue to be challenging, we are optimistic that our differentiated platform, regulatory and compliance-first approach, balance sheet strength, and broad partner network will position us well for success. Our priorities for 2023 will appropriately balance growth and discipline, enabling us to be one of the best-positioned crypto companies when market conditions improve.”
Bakkt Expenses Increased by Almost 300%
In addition to its revenue growth, Bakkt’s adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) increased by 30.3% from that of the previous year. From analysts’ estimate, the figure was meant to be negative $28 million but a negative of $30.5 million was realized. Expenses were not left out in the significant increase as they reached $341 million from $86 million.
According to the report, this expense increase of almost 300% was propelled by non-cash goodwill and intangible assets impairment charges amounting to around $272 million. These same assets’ impairment charges were the factor behind Bakkt’s $1.5 billion net loss in Q3.
Moving forward, the company plan to expand its crypto platform by diving into custody and also leverage Apex Crypto. This would be after it has completed the acquisition of the crypto platform. For now, only a definitive agreement has been signed in preparation for the $200 million acquisition.
Also, Bakkt plans to drive crypto to the utility via earn, reward, and pay features of Layer 2 protocol like Bitcoin’s Lightning Network.
