So, you know how the stock market works: a company needs cash, it sells more shares, and the price of the existing shares often takes a dip. That's the simple story playing out with Bakkt, Inc. (BKKT) on Friday. The company, which builds institutional-grade solutions for crypto, announced it's raising money through a direct offering. And the market, in its predictable fashion, is not thrilled.

The company priced a registered direct offering of about 5.5 million shares (a mix of common stock and pre-funded warrants) at $8.75 per share to a single institutional investor. The total gross proceeds come to $48.125 million. The deal is expected to close around March 2, 2026, with the money earmarked for working capital and other corporate purposes. It's a straightforward capital raise, but for existing shareholders, it means their piece of the pie just got a little smaller—hence the premarket sell-off.

This news lands on a stock that was already having a rough go of it. Over the past year, Bakkt shares are down about 10.34%. More tellingly, the stock is trading 16.8% below its 20-day simple moving average and a whopping 50.4% below its 100-day average. That's not a chart that screams "bullish momentum." It's more of a chart that whispers, "We've been struggling for a while."

So, what's next? The next big date on the calendar is March 18, 2026, when Bakkt is scheduled to report earnings. Analysts are expecting a loss of 47 cents per share, which, believe it or not, is a significant improvement from the loss of $2.95 per share a year ago. Revenue, however, is expected to come in at $279.87 million, down sharply from $1.80 billion the prior year. The consensus analyst rating on the stock is a "Hold," with an average price target of $52.85. For context, Benchmark initiated coverage with a "Buy" rating and a $13 target back in September 2025.

Adding another layer to the story is the short interest. The number of shares sold short in Bakkt recently rose to 4.47 million, which represents about 27.78% of the shares available for public trading. At the current average daily trading volume, it would take short sellers roughly 3.78 days to buy back all those shares to close their positions. That's a relatively high level of short interest, indicating a fair amount of skepticism in the market about the stock's near-term prospects.

Put it all together, and you get a stock reacting to a classic financial event—a dilutive offering—on top of an already challenging technical and sentiment backdrop. According to premarket data, Bakkt shares were down 6.06% at $9.77 on Friday morning.