BlackRock boss Larry Fink has reinforced his bullish stance on cryptocurrency as an investment, saying today that “it’s going to transcend any currency.”
The CEO of the world’s largest asset manager said in a Friday interview with CNBC, though he couldn’t speak specifically to Bitcoin because BlackRock had filed an application with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a spot market Bitcoin ETFscrypto “has a differentiating value compared to other asset classes”.
BlackRock, which manages $9.5 trillion in assets, last month applied to the SEC for a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund, leading institutional investors to pay money in space and alternately blowing up the asset to a 12-month high.
“We believe we have a responsibility to democratize investing,” he said of ETFs. “Over the past five years, more and more global investors have asked us about the role of crypto and, as I said, I think a lot of crypto is an international asset. .”
“Most importantly, because it’s so international, it’s going to transcend any currency in currency valuation,” he continued, adding that an “international crypto product” can “transcend” the dollar devaluation problem.
A Bitcoin ETF in the spot market would give institutional investors access to Bitcoin without having to deal with complex storage issues, which could mean more money would flow into the market if an ETF were ever approved.
ETFs are popular investment vehicles that allow people to buy stocks that track the value of an underlying asset like gold, foreign currency, or cryptocurrency.
A spot Bitcoin ETF does not yet exist in the United States, but a number of leading investment firms have petitioned the SEC to obtain one. The SEC was hesitant to approve such a product, however, citing market manipulation as one of the concerns.
Just last week, billionaire Fink said the role of crypto is to “digitize gold” and that Bitcoin was “an international asset”.
But in 2017, he said that “Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world.” He changed his position over the years, later affirming that it was a “great asset”.