In a recent interview, Brett Harrison, who is President of FTX.US, explained why he believes that crypto winter may be over soon.
During an interview with Emily Chang, the anchor of daily show “Bloomberg Technology”, Harrison was asked about a recent deal between Coinbase and BlackRock, which is the world’s top asset management firm by total AUM.
On August 4, Coinbase’s Brett Tejpaul (who is Head of Coinbase Institutional) and Greg Tusar (who is Head of Institutional Product) published a blog post, in which they stated that “Coinbase and BlackRock to create new access points for institutional crypto adoption by connecting Coinbase Prime and Aladdin.”
The blog post went on to say that “Coinbase is partnering with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, to provide institutional clients of Aladdin®, BlackRock’s end-to-end investment management platform, with direct access to crypto, starting with bitcoin, through connectivity with Coinbase Prime.” Apparently, Coinbase Prime will “provide crypto trading, custody, prime brokerage, and reporting capabilities to Aladdin’s Institutional client base who are also clients of Coinbase.”
Joseph Chalom, Global Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, had this to say:
“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. 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.“
According to a report published by The Daily Hodl, the FTX.US President claimed that the deal was indicative of the crypto winter “starting to thaw,” noting the massive impact of institutional demand for cryptoassets. He claimed that now was “the time to build,” in order to have the tools and capital in place for when investors start trading heavily in crypto again.
Harrison also pointed to the rising prices for cryptoassets across the market and the end to forced liquidations and crypto companies going under. According to him, the combination of rising prices and positive sentiment appears to be contributing to the narrative that the crypto winter is coming to an end.
Harrison was also asked to comment on the layoffs announced by rival exchanges Coinbase and Robinhood, in addition to traditional tech giants such as Google and Microsoft, and he replied:
I think there’s a real lesson learned here, which is that these growth companies which have typically operated under the model that headcount growth is a sign of company growth are realizing that actually sometimes headcount growth can get in the way of company growth.
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