Coinbase, an American cryptocurrency
exchange firm, has announced its partnership with BlackRock, a leading asset
management firm.
Under the partnership, Coinbase will
provide direct access to crypto trading capabilities to institutional users of
Aladdin, an end-to-end investment management platform owned by BlackRock.
Coinbase’s Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase
Institutional, and Greg Tusar, Vice President, Institutional Product, announced
the collaboration on Thursday in a blog article on the exchange’s website.
The crypto trading feature will be kicked
off with access to Bitcoin trading for the institutional clients, Tejpaul and
Tusar noted.
“Our scale, experience and integrated
product offering represented what BlackRock believes to be a logical partner
for Aladdin,” they explained.
Coinbase Prime
Coinbase said the capacity will be
delivered through Coinbase Prime, its institutional prime brokerage platform
for crypto assets.
Through Coinbase Prime, the exchange will
also provide access to custody, prime brokerage, and reporting functionalities
to Aladdin institutional users.
“Built for institutions, Coinbase Prime
integrates advanced agency trading, custody, prime financing, staking, and
staking infrastructure, data, and reporting that supports the entire transaction
lifecycle,” Tejpaul and Tusar explained.
These features will be enjoyed by
institutional customers of Aladdin who are also customers of the publicly-traded exchange, Coinbase said.
The exchange noted that its institutional
clients include asset allocators, financial institutions, hedge funds, and
corporate treasures, among others.
In his comment on the partnership, Joseph
Chalom, the Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, noted
that the Coinbase Prime connectivity with Aladdin will enable the company’s
clients to manage their exposure to Bitcoin directly from their Aladdin
workflows.
Chalom added that the new feature will
give its clients “a whole portfolio view of risk across asset classes.”
“Our institutional clients are increasingly
interested in gaining exposure to digital asset markets and are focused on how
to efficiently manage the operational lifecycle of these assets,” Chalom
explained.
Both companies noted that they will
continue work on the integration…
