BlackRock turns to Coinbase and its Prime crypto platform

BlackRock has partnered with Coinbase to give its institutional clients easier access to the crypto market. COIN’s stock price is soaring.

This Thursday, Coinbase announced a partnership with asset manager BlackRock. The alliance aims to offer access to the San Francisco-based exchange’s Coinbase Prime solution to BlackRock customers using the Aladdin platform and already being Coinbase customers.

Today marks an exciting milestone in our journey as we announce that Coinbase is partnering with BlackRock to provide Aladdin’s institutional clients with direct access to crypto, starting with Bitcoin,” Brett Tejpaul, head of Coinbase Institutional, wrote in a statement.

Coinbase Prime offers trading, custody, prime brokerage and reporting capabilities. Joseph Chalom, global head of strategic partnerships at BlackRock, said institutional investors are “increasingly interested” in investing in digital assets.

This connectivity with Aladdin will allow clients to manage their Bitcoin investments directly in their existing portfolio management and trading workflows for a complete view,” he said.

Back in the spring, BlackRock boss Larry Fink was already pointing to a growing interest in crypto among his clients.

The world’s largest asset manager, which backs stablecoin issuer Circle among others, recently launched an exchange-traded fund that offers exposure to the blockchain sector.

Following the news, Coinbase (COIN) stock jumped more than 25% on Nasdaq, surpassing $107. Its price is now hovering around $100, at the time of publishing this article.