BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is launching a blockchain-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) called the iShares blockchain and tech ETF, which invests in companies involved in the “development, innovation, and utilization of blockchain and crypto technologies.”

Goldman Sachs is reportedly exploring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their use for the “tokenization of real assets” as the investment bank dives deeper into the cryptocurrency space.

Famed National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden, helped launch the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Zcash in 2016, according to a representative of Zcash investor Electric Coin Company.

Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• BlackRock Launches Blockchain-Focused ETF
• Goldman Sachs Exploring ‘Tokenization of Real Assets’
• Edward Snowden Played Key Role in Creating ZCash

BlackRock Launches Blockchain-Focused ETF

BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, is launching a blockchain-linked exchange-traded fund (ETF) called the iShares blockchain and tech ETF, which invests in companies involved in the “development, innovation, and utilization of blockchain and crypto technologies.”

The ETF does not own cryptocurrencies or digital assets directly, and instead tracks several international companies involved in the crypto industry. The ETF is comprised of 41 separate holdings, with U.S.-based crypto exchange Coinbase making up 11.45% of the fund.

Large Bitcoin miners Marathon Digital Holdings and Riot Blockchain also represent 11.19% and 10.41% of the fund, respectively. The fund currently has over 9% of its assets in a U.S. dollar cash position.

Goldman Sachs Exploring ‘Tokenization of Real Assets’

Goldman Sachs is reportedly exploring non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and their use for the “tokenization of real assets” as the investment bank dives deeper into the cryptocurrency space.

During the Financial Times’ Crypto and Digital Assets Summit, the investment bank’s global head of digital assets Mathew McDermott said:

"We are actually exploring NFTs in the context of financial instruments, and actually there the power is actually quite powerful. So we work on a number of things.”

Goldman Sachs started offering bitcoin derivatives to investors last year, and conducted its first over the counter crypto trade with Galaxy Digital in March of this year.

Edward Snowden Played Key Role in Creating ZCash

Famed National Security Agency whistleblower, Edward Snowden, has helped launch the privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Zcash in 2016, according to a representative of Zcash investor Electric Coin Company.

Edward Snowden is said to have joined Zcash creator Zooko Wilcox, Bitcoin core developer Peter Todd, Coin Center’s Peter Van Valkenburgh, and two others in launching the Zcash network.

Each of the six participants received a sliver of the private key needed to create the cryptocurrency in a process known as “trusted setup.” The culmination of the creation ceremony involved destroying the keys to prevent counterfeiting.

Snowden’s involvement was revealed based on a video from Zcash Media, in which the whistleblower says Bitcoin is “quite famously an open ledger” and that “you can’t have truly free trade unless you have private trade.” Free trade, he said, is needed for a free society.

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