BlackRock, Inc. (BLK – Free Report) has partnered with cryptocurrency exchange, Coinbase Global, to provide its institutional clients with access to digital currencies. Presently, the partnership is limited to bitcoins as it is the largest cryptocurrency in terms of market valuation.
Through the partnership, BLK’s institutional clients will have access to crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting via Coinbase Prime, which is the exchange’s institutional platform, providing a wide range of features and tools.
Moreover, BLK’s top clients will be able to use the Aladdin investment-management system to oversee their exposure to bitcoin, along with other portfolio assets such as stocks and bonds, and to facilitate financing and trading on Coinbase’s exchange.
BlackRock, which is the world’s largest asset manager, has more than $10 trillion in assets under management. For a long time now, there have been rumors about BLK entering the cryptocurrency market.
Joseph Chalom, the global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships at BlackRock, stated, “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.”
The news of the partnership has come at a time when investors are dumping risky digital assets amid the geopolitical turmoil, rising interest rates and fears of an impending recession.
Notably, Coinbase has been facing a tough time since the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reported its probe on July 25. The SEC has been inspecting the exchange’s cryptocurrency listings for a long time.
In mid-June, Coinbase revealed that it cut back 18% of its workforce to “ensure healthy during this economic downturn.”
So far this year, shares of BLK have lost 24% compared with the 22.9% decline recorded by the industry.
Image Source: Zacks Investment Research
Currently, BlackRock carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).
A couple of better-ranked stocks from the same space are Noah Holdings Limited (NOAH – Free Report) and Atlas Corp. (ATCO – Free Report) . Currently, NOAH sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and ATCO carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
Noah Holdings’ current-year earnings estimates have been revised 3.8% upward over the past 60 days. NOAH’s shares have lost 58.1% over the past year.
The consensus estimate for Atlas Corp’s current-year earnings has been revised 1.3% upward over the past 60 days. Over the past year, ATCO’s share price has declined 13.9%.