BlackRock Taps Coinbase to Bring Crypto Trading to its Institutional Investors

American multinational investment management corporation BlackRock has partnered with Coinbase Global to bring tailored cryptocurrency trading services to the investment management firm’s institutional clients. 

Through this partnership, Coinbase and BlackRock will create new access points for institutional crypto adoption by connecting Coinbase Prime and Aladdin. 

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Aladdin is BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform and the Coinbase Prime access will make the products accessible through it more robust. 

The partnership with BlackRock - the world’s largest investment manager with over $10 trillion in Assets Under Management (AUM) - is a testament to the growing interest from mainstream financial services giants to explore the opportunities in the digital currency ecosystem.

With the new partnership, BlackRock clients who are also registered customers of Coinbase will be able to…

• Conduct crypto trading 
• Gain access to the exchange’s custody platform
• Access detailed reporting capabilities .

“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,” said Joseph Chalom, Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock. “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.”

The duo of Coinbase and BlackRock plans to introduce more products and services for the benefit of clients in a phased roll-out in the near future.

Coinbase is Focusing on What Matters

Since the start of the so-called crypto winter, Coinbase has been in the news for different reasons. 

While the firm was one of the first amongst cryptocurrency trading platforms and blockchain startups to lay off their workforce in a cost-cutting measure, its succeeding milestones have shown that the firm truly wants to focus on what matters.

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Since the company laid off 18% of its staff, it has inked the license to operate in Italy as it looks to expand its European presence. All of these point to the fact that the exchange is prioritizing its needs and pursuing deals that can add to its bottom line now, and beyond the crypto winter.