Key points to remember
- BlackRock intends to offer its investors crypto trading as well as the ability to borrow money with crypto collateral.
- Various sources informed Coindesk of these plans. However, BlackRock has not officially confirmed this information.
- BlackRock is the world’s largest asset manager, with over $10 trillion under management with institutional clients.
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Asset management giant BlackRock plans to offer cryptocurrency trading to its clients, according to sources interviewed by Coindesk.
Institutional clients will likely get crypto trading
According to these sources, BlackRock plans to give its institutional clients the ability to trade cryptocurrencies. These customers could also borrow money using crypto as collateral.
A source suggested that BlackRock will offer the service on its active, passive, debt and derivatives investment network, or “Aladdin”.
Another source provided more details on BlackRock’s plans, saying the company aims to “get familiar with…crypto” and is “looking for vendors in the space.”
The third source said that around 20 BlackRock employees are currently investigating cryptocurrency and estimated that these employees “see all the flow that everyone is getting”, adding that “they want to start making money thanks to that”.
The sources did not say when the service might be introduced.
BlackRock is interested in crypto
BlackRock has not confirmed this information. However, the firm is known to be considering blockchain. The company began looking for a blockchain strategy lead for Aladdin last June. Prior to that, he posted jobs looking for a blockchain executive in December 2020.
While BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has noted before that he was “fascinated” by bitcoin, he was quick to mention lack of demand for cryptocurrency among institutional clients. During this time, BlackRock CEO and Chief Investment Officer Rick Rieder called Bitcoin more functional than gold in November 2020.
The company also apparently plans to launch an ETF that tracks blockchain companies, according to SEC filings seen in January.
BlackRock is the world’s largest asset management company, with over $10 trillion in assets under management. His clients include endowments, sovereign wealth funds and public pension schemes.
Disclosure: At the time of writing this article, the author of this article owned BTC, ETH, and several other cryptocurrencies.
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