BlackRock, the largest wealth management firm in the world, has launched a private trust that offers institutional clients in the United States direct exposure to Bitcoin. On Thursday, the world‘s largest asset manager revealed the new product in a blog post to clarify the details.
“Despite the sharp decline in the digital asset market, we still see substantial interest from some institutional clients in these assets “, BlackRock commented. On August 4, the asset manager announced an agreement with the crypto platform Coinbase to offer institutional investors access to cryptocurrencies, starting with Bitcoin. BlackRock, which manages approximately $ 9 trillion in assets, will use Coinbase Prime to provide the service.
Bitcoin is still over 60% below its all-time high of nearly $ 69,000. However, many investors believe that Bitcoin has bottomed out along with the equity market. This year the two assets have shown a strong correlation in terms of performance, never seen before. Shortly after BlacRock’s announcement, the queen of digital currencies climbed above $ 24,700 to a two-month high, after which prices returned to their June lows, currently at $ 23,946.
“Bitcoin is the oldest, largest and most liquid cryptoasset and is currently the main object of interest of our clients in the cryptoasset space “continues the post.
The announcement follows the claims from CEO Larry Fink earlier this year that BlackRock customers had shown “a growing interest“For digital currencies, including stablecoins and” underlying technologies “, also known as blockchains.
BlackRock also highlighted the work of energy nonprofits RMI ed EnergyWeb for their efforts “To bring greater transparency to the sustainable use of energy in Bitcoin mining”, adding that the company “will monitor progress around these initiatives”.
BlacRock, the change of course on crypto assets
Institutional investors once hostile to the crypto asset industry have changed their minds in recent years, but environmental concerns surrounding the Bitcoin mining process have continued to be an obstacle, at least for the time being.
The post states that BlackRock has researched areas with “Potential benefits for our clients and capital markets more broadly”, including authorized blockchains, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies and tokenization.
Thursday’s news is BlackRock’s latest foray into the world of cryptocurrencies. The largest asset manager in the world recently announced a partnership with Coinbase which allows its institutional clients to buy cryptocurrencies, starting precisely with Bitcoin.
The recent decisions are also a consequence of the frustration of the new institutional investors in the market eager to see the Securities and Exchange Commission (the American Consob) approve a fund listed in bitcoin with a spot price. Recall that for the moment only ETFs on Bitcoin futures have been approved.