BlackRock Partners With Coinbase To Offer Crypto to Institutional Clients

Coinbase just received a major vote of confidence from BlackRock in a deal to bring crypto trading to institutional clients of the world’s largest asset manager. As of the end of the second quarter of 2022 BlackRock’s assets under management were $8.5 trillion.

Around 13,000 institutional investors who use BlackRock’s Aladdin management platform will now be able to purchase Bitcoin (BTC) via Coinbase Prime, with access to other altcoins coming at a future date.

Coinbase Prime users can trade over 200 digital assets, as well as invest in more than 300 cryptos which are held by Coinbase Custody, a custodial service for institutional investors with big money. It’s chartered in New York State and designed to give clients a highly secure way to store large amounts of cryptocurrency.

The partnership will enable direct integration between Coinbase Prime and clients of the world’s largest asset manager, with new functionality features to be rolled out in phases.

BlackRock’s Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships Joseph Chalom said: “Our institutional clients are increasingly interested in gaining exposure to digital asset markets and are focused on how to efficiently manage the operational lifecycle of these assets…This connectivity with Aladdin will allow clients to manage their Bitcoin exposures directly in their existing portfolio management and trading workflows for a whole portfolio view of risk across asset classes.”

We are proud to announce a partnership with @BlackRock. BlackRock’s Aladdin clients will now have direct access to crypto markets through Coinbase Prime.

Read more 👇https://t.co/LA3XeYYbvs

— Coinbase (@coinbase) August 4, 2022

This marks a turn of fortune for Coinbase which has struggled throughout the year, laying off 18% of its workforce as recessionary fears shed more than $2 trillion off the crypto industry’s market cap.

On the news, Coinbase shares soared 17.1% to $95. This marks a trend reversal for the crypto exchange that has seen its share price plummet from $342 when it went public in April 2021.

Across the traditional financial industry, Goldman Sachs, Citibank, Bank of American and Morgan Stanley, have all started to explore digital asset products amid growing market demand.

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