Larry Fink, chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., gestures while speaking at the Handelsblatt Banking Summit in Frankfurt, Germany, on Wednesday, September 4, 2019.
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Black stones launched a private trust that provides institutional clients in the United States with direct contact with bitcoin.
The world’s largest asset manager unveiled a new product in a Thursday blog postalthough it is very light on details.
“Despite the sharp downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing significant interest from some institutional clients about an efficient and cost-effective approach to these assets by use our technology and product capabilities,” the company said in the post.
Bitcoin is still 60% below its all-time high of nearly $69,000. However, many investors believe it has found a bottom with stocks, with two asset classes being more correlated with each other this year more than ever, amid a slide in risk assets into 2022. On Thursday, the digital currency rallied above $24,700 to its highest level since just before it dropped to its lowest low. in June.
“Bitcoin is the oldest, largest and most liquid cryptocurrency and is currently the main topic of interest for our customers in the crypto space,” the post continued.
The announcement follows CEO Larry Fink saying earlier this year that BlackRock clients have shown up “interest rate hike” in digital currencies, including stablecoins and “the underlying technology” – also known as blockchain.
BlackRock on Thursday also highlighted the work of energy nonprofits RMI and EnergyWeb for their work “to bring more transparency to the sustainable use of energy in bitcoin mining”, and added that the company “will monitor progress around those initiatives.”
Institutional investors once hostile to the crypto industry have changed their minds over the past few years, but environmental concerns around bitcoin mining continue to be an obstacle for bitcoin mining. with many people.
The post said BlackRock has been researching areas with “the potential to benefit our customers and capital markets more broadly,” including permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptocurrencies, and tokens. chemical.
Thursday’s news is the latest on BlackRock’s foray into crypto. The company, which has approximately $8.5 trillion in assets under management, recently announced a partnership with Coinbase that allows its institutional clients to buy cryptocurrencies, starting with bitcoin.
This also comes amid frustration among new institutional investors in the market wanting to see the Securities and Exchange Commission approve a spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund. So far, only bitcoin futures ETFs have been approved.
