BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) has introduced a private trust providing institutional customers in the US with direct exposure to Bitcoin (BTC).
The world’s largest asset manager confirmed the release of the new product in a blog post, however, the firm has not yet provided extensive details.
The firm noted that despite the massive downturn in the crypto-asset markets, they’re seeing considerable interest from certain institutional clients in how to effectively access this nascent asset class using their technology and product capabilities.
Bitcoin, the flagship cryptocurrency is currently over 60% below its all-time high of almost $70,000. But many investors think that the virtual currency has reached a bottom with stocks, with the two types of assets being increasingly correlated to each other during 2022.
On Thursday (August 11, 2022), Bitcoin surged past the $24,700 mark to its highest price since right before it dropped to its June 2022 low.
BlackRock’s management further noted that Bitcoin is “the oldest, largest, and most liquid crypto-asset, and is currently the primary subject of interest from our clients within the crypto-asset space.”
This latest news has come after company Chief Executive Larry Fink noted previously that the firm’s customers had been quite interested in virtual currencies, and also stablecoins (in addition to their “underlying” technologies such as blockchain/smart contracts).
As reported by CNBC, BlackRock pointed out the work of energy nonprofit firms RMI and EnergyWeb as they focus on bringing “greater transparency to sustainable energy usage in bitcoin mining.”
BlackRock confirmed that it “will follow progress around those initiatives.” BlackRock added that is exploring areas with “potential to benefit our clients and capital markets more broadly,” such as permissioned (or private) blockchains, stablecoins, and tokenization.
The firm, which has around $8.5 trillion in AUM, entered a partnership with Coinbase so that institutional customers may acquire crypto-assets, starting off just with BTC.
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