Overview

Blackrock Neurotech manufactures and commercialises the Utah Array, a penetrating intracortical microelectrode array developed at the University of Utah by Richard Normann’s group from the late 1980s and first implanted in a person with paralysis in June 2004, in the BrainGate pilot trial. The company was formally incorporated in 2008 and is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah. Blackrock arrays have been implanted in more than 40 individuals across research and clinical settings, giving it long experience with penetrating electrode arrays. The company has no affiliation with the asset manager BlackRock, Inc.

Product and technology

The MoveAgain device received FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2021, enabling accelerated clinical development. The Utah Array, typically configured with 96 to 100 electrodes, is the implant used in the BrainGate2 trial and in the Pittsburgh-Chicago intracortical trial (NCT01894802). The company is now also developing Neuralace, a flexible electrode interface designed to reduce chronic scarring and improve long-term biocompatibility.

Tether majority-stake investment

On 29 April 2024, Tether (the company behind the USDT stablecoin) took a majority stake in Blackrock Neurotech with a $200 million strategic investment through its venture capital division Tether Evo. The investment valued the company at approximately $350 million and made Tether Blackrock Neurotech’s largest shareholder. The funds are primarily directed toward commercialisation and rollout of Blackrock’s BCI technology. The deal materially changes the company’s strategic direction and capitalisation structure.

Strategic position

Blackrock’s lineage runs back through Cyberkinetics, the Brown University spin-off that ran the first BrainGate pilot trial and whose device manufacturing was spun off to Blackrock in 2008. Its institutional knowledge, FDA clearance, and clinical-partnership network give it a position that newer venture-backed competitors are still building. The Tether majority stake places Blackrock in an unusual capitalisation category: a clinical-stage BCI company whose primary controlling shareholder is a stablecoin issuer, a role usually filled by a venture capital firm or strategic medtech partner.