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“Clients will be able to trade cryptocurrencies through BlackRock’s Aladdin investment platform, according to sources.”

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is preparing to offer cryptocurrency trading services to its investor clients, according to three people familiar with the matter.

New York-based BlackRock, which manages more than $10 trillion in assets for institutions, is planning to enter the cryptocurrency space with "client support transactions and its own credit facility," one of the people said. In other words, clients can borrow from BlackRock by posting crypto assets as collateral.

BlackRock will allow clients, including public pension plans, endowments and sovereign wealth funds, to invest in assets through Aladdin (“Assets, Liabilities, Debts”), the asset manager’s integrated investment management firm, one of the people said. and Derivatives Investment Network) trading cryptocurrency platform. The timeline for the rollout of the service is currently unclear.

Currently, BlackRock declined to comment.

The asset manager may have communicated its intentions back in June last year when BlackRock began hiring a head of blockchain strategy for Aladdin. Today, it is well known that Wall Street banks and large financial institutions are gradually getting involved in the encryption field, and companies such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are choosing their strategies carefully.

BlackRock has sent some positive signals about crypto to the market, including trading CME Bitcoin futures, according to a filing with the SEC. The firm also plans to launch the iShares Blockchain and Tech ETF, an exchange-traded fund that tracks an index of U.S. and foreign companies involved in crypto.

BlackRock also owns a 16.3 percent stake in MicroStrategy, whose chief executive, Michael Saylor, has often touted news of his firm's bitcoin holdings.

Another person with knowledge of the plans said that BlackRock is "looking to work directly with cryptocurrencies" and is "looking for suppliers in the space."

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