14th August 2022 > > Blackrock.
tl;dr
Blackrock is responding yet again to institutional interest in BTC.
Market Snap

Market Wrap
Shorts getting ahead of themselves again, presumably in the belief that a breach of $25k is a big ask.
If we do go through, a series of cascading liquidations for shorts could propel us significantly higher.
Occasional Series – Afghanistan
One prominent newspaper reported yesterday (emphasis all mine) that:
“Since seizing control on 15 August last year, the Taliban have rolled back the marginal gains made by women during two decades of US intervention in Afghanistan.”
Marginal gains?
That women could go to work, hold senior positions in the government, present the news on TV, walk around without being forced to wear a hijab on pain of a beating, and, most importantly of all, girls could go to school, which would have helped to embed these gains made by women in that poor, benighted country.
I despair at the misogyny in the warped world view peddled by certain journalists, who see little difference between the current almost total subjugation of women, and the freedoms (though not perfect) as described above.
Curious Cryptos’ Commentary – Blackrock
Just a week after Blackrock announced a deep and extensive partnership with Coinbase to provide institutional clients with trading and custodial services, comes further news of a spot BTC private investment trust – essentially an ETF (exchange traded fund) type product but usually aimed at U.S institutional investors.
A similar example is the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust, which is also open to U.S. retail investors. Trading at a discount of around 30% to the spot price of BTC, long-term diamond hands will receive a nice kicker when the discount disappears. Typically, in bull markets, such trusts can trade at a premium
Sadly, in their wisdom, the UK regulator denies UK retail investors such a tremendous opportunity to ratchet up potential BTC price gains.
Moving on, a spokesman at Blackrock explained the launch of this latest product:
“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. Bitcoin is the oldest, largest and most liquid digital asset and is currently our clients’ primary subject of interest within the digital asset space.”
Blackrock is the world’s largest asset manager with $10 TRILLION of AUM (assets under management). All these developments in investment products by Blackrock demonstrate ever increasing interest from institutional investors in BTC as an investment asset.
Until now most institutional investment has been through the OTC (over-the-counter) market brokered by the likes of Coinbase, Binance, and the trading desks of firms such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. This market is opaque and secretive – popular understanding of the market price of BTC is derived from the centralised exchanges that dominate the retail market. To date, we do not get to see the transaction price for larger sized trades.
As more of these products come on-line, we will see greater transparency in the real price of BTC.
Recent Posts
See Alltl;dr Georgia, Wisconsin, the list is ever-growing. Oh, and perhaps every investment fund in the world will soon be owning BTC by proxy –...
tl;dr The SEC’s behaviour is far more becoming than we have ever seen before. Operation Choke Point 2.0 is finally killed for good in a...
tl;dr The CFTC is going full-on crypto. It seems that Texas and Michigan are of a like mind. Market Snap Market Wrap That’s four straight...
Comments