US institutional clients are now offered direct exposure to bitcoin through the trust.

BlackRock (NYSE: BLK) announced today a private trust that would offer institutional clients direct exposure to bitcoin, despite a pervasive bearish sentiment gripping the crypto assets market since it topped out in November, and recent high profile failures of major market players. (BlackRock)

“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,” BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, said in a blog post that announced the trust.

BlackRock’s private trust

BlackRock said bitcoin is currently the primary subject of interest from its clients within the cryptoasset space given that the crypto was the oldest, largest, and most liquid cryptoasset accounting for nearly 50% of the industry’s market capitalization.

Accordingly, it launched a spot bitcoin private trust for US institutional clients.

The trust would track the performance of bitcoin, less expenses and liabilities of the trust.

With an eye on environmental concerns surrounding bitcoin mining, BlackRock said it would track the progress on sustainable energy usage in bitcoin mining, particularly through the efforts of organizations such as RMI and Energy Web.

Coinbase partnership

Earlier this month, BlackRock announced it had agreed with Coinbase (NASDAQ: COIN) to create new access points for institutional crypto adoption by connecting Coinbase Prime and Aladdin, BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform.

Coinbase Prime is built for institutions and is a full-service platform to provide them access to crypto markets at scale.

Connecting directly with Coinbase Prime will provide BlackRock’s institutional clients with crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities that are already being offered to Coinbase clients; these include hedge funds, asset allocators, financial institutions, corporate treasuries and other institutions.

Related Story: Institutional Crypto Clients To Connect Via BlackRock’s Aladdin Platform To Coinbase Prime