BlackRock’s
application for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund has breathed new life into digital assets, but the financial giant’s position on crypto may be even more bullish than that, based on new comments from CEO Larry Fink.
“If we can create more tokenization of assets and securities—and that’s what Bitcoin is—it could revolutionize finance,” Fink said on Wednesday in an interview with Fox Business.
It’s a remarkable about-face from the head of
BlackRock
(ticker: BLK). The world’s largest asset manager in 2018 advised that
Bitcoin
didn’t belong in a mainstream portfolio, and Fink himself once called the token an “index of money laundering.”
BlackRock and Fink now find themselves as the latest catalysts pushing crypto prices higher. The group is leading the charge among Wall Street stalwarts like Fidelity and Invesco to offer a spot Bitcoin ETF, a move that has raised hopes of new interest in crypto from both retail and institutional investors and that has sent Bitcoin prices on a new rally.
While the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF—there have been many rejections for similar funds over the years, but the latest batch of applications hinges on a key difference—is far from certain, Fink seems confident that regulators will see the benefits.
“What we’re trying to do with crypto is make it more democratized … and making it much cheaper for investors,” Fink told Fox Business, noting significant fees to transact with Bitcoin and enter and exit positions. “We hope that our regulators look at these filings as a way to democratize crypto and we’ll see in the future how that plays out.”
Write to Jack Denton at [email protected]
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