BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, today struck a partnership with the crypto exchange giant Coinbase. Over the past few years, Coinbase has been leading in building trust among investors and traders and strengthening the crypto market. It is the most trusted bridge to the crypto community.
Today, Coinbase made a new milestone through this partnership in the crypto industry, where layoffs and turmoil have become commonplace.
BlackRock And Coinbase Set New Goals
The partnership will make it easier for BlackRock’s institutional investors to manage and trade Bitcoin, marking a major push into cryptocurrencies for the world’s largest asset manager. BlackRock’s institutional clients who also hold digital assets on Coinbase will now be able to use Aladdin, BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform. With the integration of Coinbase Prime, Aladdin will allow investors direct access to crypto, starting with Bitcoin.
Coinbase Prime will facilitate crypto financing and trading on the Coinbase platform. It will also provide custody, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities to Aladdin’s Institutional client base. Coinbase Prime implements advanced agency trading, custody, prime financing, staking infrastructure, data, and reporting that supports the entire transaction lifecycle. According to Coinbase’s blog, “We combine these capabilities with leading security, insurance, and compliance practices to provide institutional clients of Coinbase with a full-service platform to access crypto markets at scale. Coinbase’s clients include hedge funds, asset allocators, financial institutions, corporate treasuries and other institutions.”
Giving Crypto Enthusiasts A New Height
The move scores how traditional financial players are diving deeper into crypto and related technologies, even after this year’s meltdown in such digital assets. Bitcoin’s price drop and Terra ecosystem crash have not stopped big giants from expanding their crypto ecosystem.
Joseph Chalom, BlackRock’s global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships, said, “Our institutional clients are increasingly interested in gaining exposure to digital-asset markets and are focused on how to efficiently manage the operational life cycle of these assets.”
The partnership comes four months after BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink said, “The world’s largest asset manager would explore its ways to offer digital assets to its clients, confirming continued interest by institutional investors in the cryptocurrency industry.” Coinbase has struggled amid the major downfall in crypto prices and tight competition this year. A plunge in cryptocurrency prices has made layoffs at Coinbase and Gemini Trust, the two largest cryptocurrency exchanges. Coinbase is also facing an investigation from the Securities and Exchange Commission on whether it illegally allowed Americans to trade digital tokens that should have been registered as securities. Luring more institutional money could pave the way to recovery in the digital assets industry.
BlackRock stated, “As the trusted partner enabling institutions to participate and transact in the cryptoeconomy, we are committed to pushing the industry forward and creating new access points as institutional crypto adoption continues to rapidly accelerate. We are honored to partner with an industry leader and look forward to furthering Coinbase’s goal of providing greater access and transparency to crypto.”
BlackRock and Coinbase will continue developing the platform’s integration and will roll out functional upgrades in phases depending upon clients’ interests.
