The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has finally made the leap into cryptocurrency after years of resistance. BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, has partnered with Coinbase, a publicly traded company, to offer institutional clients access to cryptocurrency.

a blog article Coinbase today announced that Bitcoin is the first digital asset offered by the partnership. BlackRock’s Aladdin investment platform will provide connectivity to Coinbase Prime, which will allow shared clients to trade, custodian, and report on crypto.

BlackRock announced that Coinbase and Aladdin will allow common clients to manage their bitcoin exposures, as well as their private and public investments.

This news is a significant shift for BlackRock. Five years ago, Larry Fink, the chairman of BlackRock, called bitcoin an “index of money laundering”. The asset management company has made modest advances in web3 since then, including the introduction of bitcoin futures trading on its platform and some funds last fiscal year. In a March letter to shareholders Fink stated that BlackRock was looking into ‘digital currencies and stablecoins’ in order to help it serve its clients.

According to Coinbase Prime, 13,000 institutions are using the suite of tools it offers today. It is not clear when other cryptocurrency offerings will be added to the platform by the companies.

It’s a huge day for Coinbase. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg also today announced that Coinbase has integrated with the Instagram platform, along with other third-party cryptocurrency wallets. Coinbase stock rose by more than 17% today at 11:00 EST. It is also up by over 70% over the past month, showing that the company is beginning to recover from the lows reached in May when the crypto market pullback hit.

The exchange was hit hard by adverse crypto market conditions. It announced a hiring freeze as well as a roundof layoffs this Summer. This latter being 18% of its total employee base. The ‘crypto winter” has received different responses from its competitors. Gemini implemented two rounds layoffs , while Binance.US was actively hiring.