BlackRock Partners With Coinbase To Give Institutional Clients Access to Bitcoin

Asset management giant BlackRock (NASDAQ: BLK) announced on August 4 that it had partnered with Coinbase Global (NASDAQ: COIN). The partnership is limited to bitcoin and will allow the firm’s institutional clients to have access to crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting via Coinbase Prime. The clients will also be able to manage their bitcoin and conduct risk analysis using BlackRock’s software suite Aladdin. Following the news, Coinbase stock experienced a jump of 16%.

As a result of this partnership, clients can access Coinbase Prime, the exchange's institutional platform, which provides a wide range of features and tools. The platform recently allowed institutions to start staking Ether on the platform.

BlackRock has over $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM) and is one of the notable names in the financial world. Rumors have long swirled that it would be entering the cryptocurrency market, with reports earlier in the year saying that it would allow trading via Aladdin. The rumors seem to have come true.

BlackRock has had some involvement with the crypto space in the past. It owns 16.3% of MicroStrategy and has launched a blockchain industry ETF. A former BlackRock executive has also said that bitcoin will become a part of everyone’s portfolio.

Joseph Chalom, Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, said that clients were focusing more on this new asset class. “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,'' he said.

Coinbase, which has had a rocky couple of weeks due to the Securities and Exchange Commission's investigation, has been buoyed by the partnership. The SEC has been watching the exchange's cryptocurrency listings for a long time.