BlackRock Offers Institutions Direct Exposure to Spot BTC

Asset management giant BlackRock unveiled a new private trust allowing investors to gain exposure to spot Bitcoin. The trust, which primarily targets U.S. institutional clients, marks the first BlackRock’s offering that provides direct exposure to the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

BlackRock Targets Institutional Investors With its First Spot Bitcoin-focused Trust

BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, launched a private trust providing U.S. institutional investors with direct exposure to spot Bitcoin. The trust is BlackRock’s first Bitcoin-focused product and “seeks to track the performance of Bitcoin, less expenses and liabilities of the trust.” Its launch comes amid a challenging period for the crypto market which has lost billions of dollars in value in recent months.

“Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities,”

BlackRock said in a statement.

The move comes after BlackRock’s substantial work in key digital asset areas and their associated ecosystems that have the potential to benefit the asset manager’s clients. These areas include permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, crypto assets, and tokenization, said BlackRock.

BlackRock also said its work around digital assets has been encouraged by programs developed by Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) and Energy Web, aimed at increasing transparency to sustainable energy usage in Bitcoin mining. BlackRock said it will continue to closely monitor progress around those programs.

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BlackRock Ramps Up Efforts to Boost Crypto Adoption

BlackRock’s Bitcoin-focused trust comes just a week after the firm inked a landmark deal with the crypto exchange Coinbase. The deal will see the two companies join forces to offer crypto services to institutional inventors for the purpose of boosting crypto adoption.

More specifically, Coinbase and BlackRock teamed up to provide joint customers of Coinbase Prime and BlackRock’s investment management platform Aladdin with access to crypto trading, prime brokerage, and reporting services. The deal will initially apply only to Bitcoin, the companies said, though there are plans to expand to other digital assets based on client demand.

BlackRock’s recent crypto-focused initiatives – the new Bitcoin trust and Coinbase deal – emphasize the asset management’s firm focus to stimulate crypto adoption among institutional clients. The moves come in the midst of an extremely challenging year for the crypto industry, with major crypto firms like Celsius Network announcing bankruptcies while inflation remains exceptionally high.

Do you think BlackRock’s latest efforts will have a major impact on crypto adoption? Let us know in the comments below.