Update 12/08/20: For those part of the early access program, Bakkt has a purchase/load $20 get a $25 Target gift card promotion running:
Looks like the Starbucks option is only available on iOS devices.
The Offer
Direct link to offer [$10 early access list]
- Bakkt is a digital wallet to track, spend, and send your digital assets. Bakkt is promising $10 on app launch when you signup on their early access list.
The Fine Print
- Limit one $10.00 incentive per customer
- One customer may only create one account
- Incentive limited to the first 50,000 customers
- App is not currently available in New York or Hawaii
- (Probably requires) linking a bank account
- But the promotion appears to post after linking a bank account through Plaid
- (Probably requires) creating an account within seven days of receiving access
Bakkt App
Vision
Bakkt’s goal is to create a digital wallet that can hold, buy, sell, and trade a wide assortment of digital assets:
- Rewards/Loyalty Currencies
- Airline Miles, Hotel Points, …,
- Gift Cards
- Crypto
- Bitcoin (BTC), …
- In-Game Points/Assets
- Cash (USD)
Current Reality
But currently [as of 2020-11-10] the app only supports a fraction of those assets and a very small part of the planned functionality.
Basically, you can get an aggregate view of your loyalty balances and buy/sell bitcoin.
Our Verdict
The $10 signup bonus definitely won’t make you rich, but I think its around the going rate for many app installs.
I originally joined the waitlist from this page in May 2020, and just a few days ago was offered a $20 bonus to try out the app. So that method might work, or the option of waiting for a potentially larger signup bonus down the line, but there’s no guarantee either of those options will be successful. [The link at the top of the post only benefits the new user (there is no referral bonus component)].
It’s tough to say how valuable Bakkt will become (at this stage in its development). But a few initial thoughts:
- Trading rewards points through Bakkt may offer bad value
- because historically programs (like points.com) have offered poor conversion/trading values for rewards points.
- And Bakkt might not deliver on their vision
- because despite being backed by the owner of the NYSE and completing a significant capital raise their vision is very ambitious.
- But Bakkt is a mashup of a lot of the domains in which we play (points & miles, gift cards, crypto, visa debit cards, some form of P2P money transfer, …)
- so there might be some value to discover.
Bakkt originally popped up in a DoC recap post back in February 2020 (based on a Fortune article).
All the Best!
History
- 2020-12-08: Gift Card Promotion Update
- 2020-11-12: Original Post
Updating my experience…. I gave up. Unable to access my account for weeks. Emails to support not returned. Finally got access. Converted BTC to cash to withdraw. Unable to withdraw. More emails to support. No resolution. Had to beg for even a response. Called support. “we will email you when resolved”. Weeks without a response. Emailed again threatening to file a CFPB complaint. Got a response “we will email you when resolved”. Ten days passed without a response…
Never able to withdraw my cash, so today I purchased gift cards with my remaining balance ($86) and I’m done with them.
Wife STILL cannot access her account. MONTHS with no access and virtually no response from support.
You’re lucky, at least you were able to sell your bitcoin and buy a gift card with it. I can’t even sell my bitcoin. Of course, the cash I have in my account isn’t withdrawable either. I don’t know of anyone who has been able to withdraw from the app. Looks like this app is making its money by getting people to deposit but not letting them withdraw anything.
Has anyone been able to withdraw ANY funds from their account? I deposited a total of $45 and purchased BTC. Have since sold all BTC. After having my account randomly locked for a month, I’m just trying to exit the relationship. Have $86 cash showing but I can’t withdraw even the $10 minimum. Keep getting a “Transaction Denied” popup and no response from Bakkt support (3 days).
I joined didnt get it HELP
Not sure, looks like the landing page is still up so I’m assuming the promotion is still running.
You could reach out to their support team.
When you signup, I believe you do have to link a bank account through plaid and possibly transfer in $10 for the bonus to post.
Opened an account November 12. Got the bonus, got the Target gift card, made an additional small deposit or two, bought a little BTC. Looking good…
Then today, tried to sign in to find my account locked.
Emailed support as requested. Received email stating “This account is currently locked due to multiple instances of deposits being initiated with insufficient funds in the linked bank account.”.
Might add the most recent funding was 1/3 and posted/cleared my checking account 1/5
Checked the linked bank, all good, plenty of funds. Emailed back asking for more details Received an email stating
“Accounts are locked routinely for different reasons. When and if you notice your account locked, please note that we will need to review the account and determine the reasoning for the account lock. Please note that this process can take 3-5 business days to complete. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”
Also via the initial email:
“Our compliance team manually reviews each account and determines whether we will unlock the account or whether the account will remain locked, as well as what will be done with any funds remaining on the account (such as USD, Gift Cards, or BTC).”
EXCUSE ME?
Meanwhile I don’t have access to my funds, nor even to my account information to verify my linked account, for 3-5 business days. Not happy and DEFINITELY making an exit ASAP.
And NOW my wife is getting an “Unrecognized login. Please try again.” error when trying to log in with email or phone number…
:-[
Found out the wife’s account is also locked, SMDH. Looking forward to hearing from these clowns (Wednesday will be 5 business days) and subsequently closing these accounts.
Sorry to hear, not sure what is going on there.
On an unrelated note, looks like Bakkt is going to become a publicly traded company:
https://www.coindesk.com/bitcoin-exchange-bakkt-agrees-merger-will-become-publicly-listed-on-nyse
Article mentions that they are planning to have a full launch of the app in the Spring – calling it Bakkt Cash app
Just read that this morning. Still waiting to hear back from them on our issues… *grumble*
I’ll probably keep the accounts open just to see if any more interesting promos come down the pipe, but will be extremely gun shy to put much in the way of funds into them for the long haul.
Wife’s account still locked. Requested status update via email.
After several additional (somewhat irate) messages to the help desk, I received a response indicating the review had been completed and the decision made to unlock my account (1/14), I would just need to submit a selfie holding my ID. Provided that on 1/15. Still locked (expected with the weekend and holiday). Will update when unlocked.
Still locked. 3 weeks now. Almost 2 since I provided the requested “Selfie with your ID”
Wife’s account still locked. 3 weeks. Last response was after initial inquiry. Reached out again yesterday. Nada…
My account is locked too, though I just have a small amount of bitcoin in mine. I actually already used my $25 Target gift card from the promo because I screenshotted it on my phone and the balance was still there even with the account lockout.
I thought to screenshot the gift card in case of an event like this since you can never guess how trustworthy these apps really are. Hopefully they are just backlogged with identity verification requests and your account will be unlocked soon. I only put $10 into my account because they give you a free $10 when you sign up, and I only needed $20 in bitcoin to trigger the Target gift card offer.
My P2 is in the same boat here as well. P3 never did the deal because she was never able to link her bank account in the first place. Support seems to be relatively unhelpful.
I have not attempted to contact them yet about his, but if they don’t unlock my account in a timely fashion, I will tell them that I am reporting them as fraud to my linked bank account Capital One. I did this with another app that gave me a hard time about withdrawing my money, Vimvest, and they made the withdrawal the next day after I threatened them.
I try not to keep any money in any sort of banking service that is just an app since they are not real banks and are not insured in any way. There was an app called Mezu Money that started blocking people’s accounts and never gave people their money back, though I only had a few dollars in mine, so it wasn’t really a big deal for me.
I try to only store money in regular banks and credit unions because they are at least somewhat regulated. My P3 recently had hundreds of dollars in bitcoin stolen by Blockfi so I can definitely feel your pain here. Hopefully everything gets sorted out soon.
Unlocked today. 3 plus weeks. P2 still locked. I emailed them regularly, about once every 5 days after the initial heated period. I’m interested to hear your experience. I’m surprised it isn’t more wide spread (or maybe it’s just not being reported, not a very commented thread)
Unlocked after 3 weeks and a few days. P2 still locked.
Account was locked with a less BS/lacking explanation excuse. Add to that a failure to respond in a timely manner.
All my trust is lost in these guys. Cashing out and moving on.
HAHA… “cashing out and moving on”… That’s what I thought. Now can’t withdraw any funds… The hits just keep coming with Bakkt!
Received a $25 Target GC today in the app.
I got errors on 3 attempts to load cash, saying the transaction didn’t process…and then I get emails that they all did. Awesomeness.
Did anyone get the $25 Target GC? How long did it take? (I bought BTC 20 minutes ago but haven’t gotten the Target GC. Maybe it already reached the 2,000 person cap.)
The $10 for creating an account posted immediately.
Buying/selling BTC is only available between the hours of 7am-7pm ET. There’s no fee, but there’s a spread (buy price is higher than sell price).
Not sure if cap has been reached, but doesn’t look like the gift card posts instantly.
Received an email yesterday (day after purchase) that gift card would be delivered to digital wallet by 12/21.
Same here. I bought it within 2-3 hours after receiving the email, but haven’t received Target GC. Still remains to be seen whether Bakkt is a trustworthy company or not.
Thanks for noting the price spread. Quite sketchy for them to have price spread since one isn’t technically buying real bitcoin, but rather a derivative.
From my recent experience, it ain’t lookin’ good…
https://www.doctorofcredit.com/early-access-waitlist-bakkt-digital-rewards-wallet-10-on-launch/#comment-1123289
I got the $25 Target GC today.
I reloaded a $20 Starbucks card using bakkt cash but haven’t received a $25 Target GC. Let’s see how it goes.
Similar waiting situation but I bought bitcoin instead. We’ll see if they decide to honor the GC.
The Bakkt Android app is a POS. It crashes before I even get a chance to log in.
If linked page is still showing $10 does it mean I will get it if I sign up or they keep showing it even after 50K people signed up already ?
I’m not sure, I figure if you receive the email like benji describes when coming off the waitlist I think you will receive the $10