BlackRock Launches Spot Bitcoin Private Trust After Coinbase Partnership

World’s largest asset manager “conducting work” on potential of permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets and tokenization

share

key takeaways

  • BlackRock has seen “substantial interest from some institutional clients” in crypto despite the market’s steep downturn
  • Its new bitcoin trust follows a deal to connect the firm’s Aladdin platform to Coinbase Prime

Asset management titan BlackRock has delved a bit deeper into the crypto waters, revealing that it has launched a spot bitcoin private trust for US institutional clients. 

“Despite the steep downturn in the digital asset market, we are still seeing substantial interest from some institutional clients in how to efficiently and cost-effectively access these assets using our technology and product capabilities,” the company said in a Thursday statement.

The trust seeks to track the performance of bitcoin. The cryptoasset’s price stood at about $24,600 at 9:45 am ET, down roughly 64% off its all-time high reached last November. 

BlackRock, which managed $8.5 trillion in assets as of June 30, labeled permissioned blockchains, stablecoins, cryptoassets and tokenization as areas in which it sees potential.   

The company also said in the statement that it is “encouraged” by programs by RMI and Energy Web, which it sees bringing transparency to sustainable energy usage in bitcoin mining. 

A BlackRock spokesperson declined to comment. 

The company’s announcement comes about a week after BlackRock partnered with Coinbase to offer institutional clients of its Aladdin platform access to bitcoin. The deal allows for Aladdin users — including asset managers, pension funds, insurers and corporate treasurers — to handle bitcoin exposure directly in their existing portfolio management and trading workflows.  

Industry watchers and executives said the move proves institutional investor interest in the asset class and could spur traditional finance competitors to follow suit. 

BlackRock has slowly warmed up to crypto, launching a blockchain ETF in April. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said the month prior that the war in Ukraine could accelerate the adoption of digital currency.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Decoding crypto and the markets. Daily, with Byron Gilliam.

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates (8).png

Research

Meta-aggregators like Titan and Kamino Swap improve price execution for users, making the Solana swapping landscape more competitive. Jupiter has incorporated meta-aggregation features into its latest routing engine to keep users on its front end (own the user, own the flow). At large, teams are treating swaps as a commoditized complement, offering incredibly cheap or free swaps to own the end-user and increase demand for high-margin product offerings (multi-product DeFi). On another note, the divergence in the concentration of aggregator volume between DEXs suggests increased specialization at the DEX layer by asset type.

article-image

Investors moved to safe assets like the US dollar and gold, but bonds faltered

article-image

The Amex offers up to 4% bitcoin back, but the deal is a bit ironic considering crypto’s goals

article-image

Short answer: Subnets are now cheaper to bootstrap than a Celestia rollup

article-image

Few things are more cypherpunk than keeping keys in your brain wallet

article-image

Many community banks and credit unions feel like they missed the fintech craze — and they don’t want to miss stablecoins

article-image

BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein noted that the firm had been looking into crypto since 2017