Bitcoin, ethereum and crypto prices have rocketed higher over the last month as the shock flips to crypto continue to pile up.
The bitcoin price has doubled over the last six months, fueling an ethereum, BNBBNB and XRPXRP cryptocurrency price boom that could herald a surprise China earthquake.
Now, Larry Fink, the BlackRock chief executive who leads the world’s largest asset manager that oversees some $9 trillion worth of assets around the world, has said bitcoin and crypto could “revolutionize finance,” a remarkable shift in opinion from a man who once called bitcoin “index of money laundering,” declaring that’s “all it is.”
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Despite being initially skeptical of bitcoin because “it was heavily used for, let’s say, illicit activities,” Fink has come around to the technology and now thinks BlackRock should embrace it. “What we’re trying to do with crypto is make it more democratized, and make it much cheaper for investors,” Fink told Fox Business.
BlackRock began working with major crypto exchange CoinbaseCOIN last year and has built out its bitcoin services since then, following other Wall Street giants in offering crypto services in exchange for the juicy fees clients are willing to pay for safe and secure access to the volatile and often hugely lucrative crypto market.
The asset manager sent shock waves through the world of crypto with a filing for a U.S. spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the middle of last month, a move that was closely followed by other finance heavyweights who expect BlackRock to carve a path through the regulatory minefield.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) reportedly rebuffed the application, calling it not “clear and comprehensive,” but Nasdaq last week refiled for BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust, suggesting the company is keen to find a route to market.
“We have a good track record working with our regulators and trying to make sure we’re thinking about all the issues around any filing,” Fink said, adding that he couldn’t get into specifics about BlackRock’s landmark spot bitcoin ETF application. “We work really closely with our regulators, and we want to hear from the regulators.”
Fink and BlackRock seem to have settled on the prevailing narrative that bitcoin is best viewed as a more modern form of gold rather than as a tool for payments.
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“The role of bitcoin is digitizing gold,” Fink said. “Instead of investing in gold as a hedge against inflation or the onerous problems of any one country or the devaluation of your currency, bitcoin is an international asset and not based on any one currency and can represent an asset that people can play as an alternative. The foundation of BlackRock is about hope, you invest for retirement because you believe tomorrow is better than today.”
Fink’s comments have been cheered by many in the crypto community who see his flip to bitcoin supporter as a sign “unprecedented” levels of support could be about to hit the bitcoin and crypto market, potentially boosting the price of ethereum, BNB and XRP.
“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s statement that bitcoin is an ‘international asset’ that can help give clients a better future signals a new chapter for bitcoin where it is embraced by the most established and trusted names in global finance,” Alex Adelman, the chief executive of bitcoin rewards app Lolli, said in emailed comments.
“As global institutions continue to show their faith in bitcoin as a preferred store of value, we will see bitcoin rise to unprecedented levels of mainstream adoption and demand. Bitcoin ETF filings from global leaders like BlackRock and Fidelity will also continue to catalyze a race among other financial institutions to offer bitcoin-based financial products and meet rising client demand.”
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