Institutional crypto trading in its early years was characterised by opacity, fragmented liquidity, and a near-total absence of the market structure tools that professional traders take for granted in traditional asset classes. TradeBlock was founded in 2013 to bring institutional-grade analytics and execution tools to digital asset markets. Its platform provided price indices, trading analytics, and execution management for professional crypto traders — the infrastructure layer that made it possible to trade cryptocurrency with the rigour that institutional mandates require. The company's XBX Bitcoin Price Index became one of the most widely referenced benchmarks in institutional crypto, used by exchanges and financial products as a reliable reference rate. TradeBlock was acquired by CoinDesk in 2020, folding its analytics capabilities into the broader crypto media and data platform. Its trajectory mirrors the maturation of institutional crypto more broadly: the tools built for early professional traders became the foundation for the regulated, institutionalised market that followed. For the European crypto infrastructure space, TradeBlock represents an early chapter in the story of how digital assets became a legitimate asset class.