Institutional Adoption Grows as $9.5 Trillion BlackRock Moves to Offer Crypto Trading

According to three anonymous insiders, BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, has plans afoot to launch a crypto trading service to its investor clients.

Not BlackRock’s First Rodeo

Unsurprisingly, the Wall Street titan is no stranger to the world of crypto. For starters, BlackRock owns 16.3 percent of MicroStrategy, whose current Bitcoin exposure is north of US$5 billion.

And then last year it started “dabbling” in Bitcoin futures and, most recently, it filed for a blockchain ETF (exchange traded fund), which purports to track the performance of companies exposed to blockchain technology within the US and abroad.

But it doesn’t end there – BlackRock is also seemingly building up internal blockchain development capacities, based on a recent job posting for its wealth management platform, Aladdin.

Crypto Trading Offering

While BlackRock has declined to comment, it has been suggested that it intends to offer its clients leveraged crypto trading through Aladdin. In other words, clients (such as pension funds and hedge funds) would be allowed to trade using borrowed funds after posting crypto as collateral.

The move is somewhat anticipated, given the perpetual growth in institutional adoption within the space. This was seemingly confirmed by one insider who referred to an internal crypto working group of approximately 20, saying: “They see all the flow that everyone else is getting and want to start making some money from this.”

Another with knowledge of the matter, commented that BlackRock was “looking to get hands-on with outright crypto” and “looking at providers in the space”. Interpret this as you will, but the subtext appears to be that BlackRock is on the acquisition trail hoping to reel in crypto native companies.

Zooming out and focusing on macro trends, it’s been a big week for crypto, and Twitter knows it: