Bob Diamond, a former CEO of Barclays, commented on BlackRock’s current crypto actions throughout a CNBC interview on June 21.
Diamond, now the CEO of Atlas Service provider Capital, mentioned:
“I like seeing a number of the extra mainstream corporations getting concerned right here like BlackRock…I’m not stunned that they’re extra concerned now in crypto extra broadly.”
BlackRock lately filed for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF). If it succeeds, it will likely be the primary firm within the U.S. to supply such an funding.
Nonetheless, BlackRock’s crypto actions are usually not restricted to that submitting. Diamond famous that one in every of his corporations and BlackRock each beforehand invested within the USDC agency Circle.
BlackRock took half in an April 2022 funding spherical by way of which Circle raised $400 million. Diamond’s present agency, Atlas, was not named as an investor in that press launch, and as such, the capability during which Diamond and his corporations invested is unclear.
Diamond feedback on crypto business
Diamond additionally commented on the crypto market extra broadly. He mentioned:
“Crypto is a broad time period, however should you slim it all the way down to the digitization of a lot of what we’re doing it’s a pure course.”
He argued that the cryptocurrency business ought to cease avoiding regulation, including that cooperation with regulators will enchantment to the banking business. He mentioned that “robust banks need robust regulation.” He mentioned that readability is required for crypto to have a optimistic affect.
Although Diamond didn’t identify any firms which can be battling laws, two main crypto exchanges, Coinbase and Binance have been confronted with expenses from the U.S. Securities and Alternate Fee (SEC) in June. Each firms mentioned that that they had tried to work with regulators however got no means to register.
Diamond mentioned that he has not bought Bitcoin (BTC). Nonetheless, he mentioned that his accomplice at Atlas Service provider Capital, David Schamis, has invested.
The publish Former Barclays CEO says he ‘loves’ seeing BlackRock concerned in crypto appeared first on CryptoSlate.