Financial services giant Northern Trust has significantly expanded its work with blockchain and cryptocurrencies across multiple divisions. In addition to adding a number of new blockchain features for managing its private equity workflow, the company, which has almost $10.7 trillion in assets under custody and administration, has also quietly opened its fund administration services to a select group of hedge funds betting on bitcoin and ethereum. These potentially groundbreaking projects amount to one of the most significant pushes into cryptocurrency and other assets encrypted on a blockchain by a traditional financial institution.