Fred Ehrsam

Coinbase Partners With World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock to Give Aladdin Clients Access to Cryptocurrencies

04/08/2022 by Idelto Editor

Coinbase Partners With the World’s Largest Asset Manager Blackrock to Give Aladdin Clients Access to Cryptocurrencies

On August 4, the head of Coinbase Institutional, Brett Tejpaul, and the vice president of institutional product, Greg Tusar, announced that Coinbase has been selected by the financial giant Blackrock to provide the firm’s Aladdin platform access to cryptocurrencies.

Blackrock Chooses Coinbase to Connect Aladdin Clients to Crypto

Coinbase’s institutional arm will help the world’s largest asset manager, Blackrock (NYSE: BLK), provide Aladdin’s institutional clients with access to digital currencies. The company noted that Blackrock chose Coinbase due to the firm’s “scale, experience, and integrated product offering.” The publicly traded company Coinbase (Nasdaq: COIN) has a long history in the crypto space since it was founded in 2012 by Brian Armstrong and Fred Ehrsam.

The New York-based multinational investment management corporation Blackrock is one of the largest financial institutions worldwide. Blackrock deals with roughly $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM) recorded in 2021. Coinbase considers the partnership with Blackrock and Aladdin a “milestone” for the crypto asset company. The Aladdin platform stands for the Asset, Liability, Debt, and Derivative Investment Network and it’s an investment management and trading platform designed specifically for Blackrock’s institutional clients.

“Blackrock and Coinbase will continue to progress the platform integration and will roll out functionality in phases to interested clients,” Tejpaul and Tusar wrote on Thursday. In mid-June, Rick Rieder, chief investment officer (CIO) of global fixed income at Blackrock, explained that cryptocurrencies like bitcoin (BTC) are durable assets. In April, Blackrock launched a blockchain exchange-traded fund and Blackrock was named “a primary asset manager of USDC cash reserves” the same month.

Blackrock Exec: ‘Institutional Clients Are Increasingly Interested in Gaining Exposure to Digital Asset Markets’

Joseph Chalom, the global head of strategic ecosystem partnerships at Blackrock, remarked that Blackrock’s clientele has been gravitating toward digital currencies. “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,” Chalom said on Thursday. The Blackrock executive added:

This connectivity with Aladdin will allow clients to manage their bitcoin exposures directly in their existing portfolio management and trading workflows for a whole portfolio view of risk across asset classes.

Following the Coinbase and Blackrock partnership announcement, COIN shares increased more than 16% higher during the morning trading sessions on Thursday (EST). However, COIN is down 72.46% in value from the stock’s all-time price high. Moreover, at the end of June, Goldman Sachs downgraded COIN to a sell rating.

The news follows the alleged U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) probe reported on July 25, and the company’s recent European expansion. In mid-June, Coinbase also revealed it had to cut back 18% of the firm’s workforce to “ensure [Coinbase stays] healthy during this economic downturn,” according to the company’s co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong.

What do you think about Coinbase partnering with Blackrock and integrating with the firm’s Aladdin platform? Let us know your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.

Paradigm Launches $2.5 Billion Venture Fund to Invest in Next Generation of Crypto Companies and Protocols

16/11/2021 by Idelto Editor

Investment firm Paradigm has launched a $2.5 billion venture fund to invest in the next generation of crypto companies and protocols. The firm believes that the “new fund and its size are reflective of crypto being the most exciting frontier in technology.”

$2.5 Billion Fund for Crypto Industry

Investment firm Paradigm announced Monday the launch of a $2.5 billion venture fund to invest in the next generation of crypto companies and protocols. Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam, who co-founded Paradigm in 2018, explained:

Our conviction in these beliefs has only strengthened over the past three years, and we are pleased to announce a new $2.5 billion venture fund to continue investing in the next generation of crypto companies and protocols.

“This new fund will invest alongside our existing flagship fund across all stages and geographies,” they noted.

Ehrsam also co-founded the Nasdaq-listed crypto exchange Coinbase. Huang was previously a partner at Sequoia Capital focusing on early-stage venture investments including leading the firm’s cryptocurrency efforts.

The two co-founders finished raising $2.5 billion this month for Paradigm One, their first venture capital fund. The fund raised was twice the amount they initially targeted, the Financial Times reported. Nonetheless, Ehrsam told the publication, “It is probably small relative to where we’re going in 10 years.”

This is the largest new venture capital fund in history for the crypto space, the publication noted. Earlier this year, VC firm Andreessen Horowitz raised $2.2 billion for its new cryptocurrency fund, which at the time it said was the “largest crypto fund ever raised.”

Paradigm’s first fund, which is structured like a hedge fund, raised an initial $400 million in 2018. Its annual internal rate of return was more than 200% through the first half of this year, according to figures viewed by the Financial Times. The fund’s assets have reached as high as $10 billion.

Ehrsam and Huang further detailed:

This new fund and its size are reflective of crypto being the most exciting frontier in technology. Over the past decade, crypto has come a long way.

However, they emphasized, “The journey is just beginning, and the potential of crypto has never been more clear.”

What do you think about Paradigm launching a $2.5 billion venture fund to invest in the next generation of crypto companies and protocols? Let us know in the comments section below.

Coinbase Founder Launches Cryptocurrency Fueled Charity ‘Givecrypto’

28/06/2018 by Idelto Editor

On June 27 the CEO and co-founder of Coinbase, Brian Armstrong, announced the launch of a new cryptocurrency powered charity called Givecrypto.org. Armstrong says he’s always believed in the power of cryptocurrency funded philanthropy and explains the new nonprofit is all about empowering, educating, and elevating global communities.

Also read: Cryptocurrency Firm Circle Sees Institutional Interest Spike 30%

Givecrypto.org Aims to Empower Those in Need With Cryptocurrencies

This Wednesday the CEO of Coinbase Brian Armstrong introduced his new nonprofit called Givecrypto which aims to “distribute cryptocurrency to people living in poverty.” In recent a Medium post, Armstrong explains the funds will derive from cryptocurrency holders and Givecrypto will distribute small payments to people all around the globe.

“Initial recipients will be people living in emerging markets, especially those going through financial crisis,” Armstrong details.

The goals behind Givecrypto.org are to help people in need by sending money to them directly, advance real-world usage and benefits of cryptocurrency, and provide universal access to an open financial system.

Crypto-Luminaries With Deep Pockets Can Donate to Those in Need Rather Than Buy Lambos

Givecrypto donors can send funds with the cryptocurrencies such as BTC, BCH, ETH, LTC, XRP, and ZEC. So far the organization has raised a bunch of funds from users donating $1Mn to over $10K USD from blockchain luminaries, firms, and venture capitalists such as Zooko Wilcox, Chris Larsen, Joanne and Fred Wilson, Matthew Roszak, Roger Ver, Fred Ehrsam, Ted Rogers, and Bitmain.

Armstrong states that people who have invested in cryptocurrencies from the early days have amassed tons of wealth over the years. However, the Coinbase CEO has noticed the image of “bros in Lambos” has misrepresented the crypto-community as a whole.

“This doesn’t represent the best of our community. Most people I respect and know in the crypto ecosystem believe we have a responsibility to help this technology reach a much wider audience,” explains the Coinbase founder.

It’s still very early days in crypto and yet we’re already seeing philanthropy in cryptocurrency, from Ripple giving away $29 million to public schools to the Pineapple Fund or projects like Eat BCH. Now is the time to make sure we fold philanthropy and giving back into the fabric of this new industry.

Armstrong has also detailed that since the initial fund is being raised the nonprofit is looking for an executive director to run the operations. “This role would report to and work directly with me, to help grow Givecrypto.org — I will remain on the board of Givecrypto.org,” Armstrong concludes.

What do you think about the new charity Givecrypto? Let us know your thoughts on this subject in the comment section below.

Images via Shutterstock, Twitter, and Givecrypto.org.

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