- Larry Fink says “liquidity and transparency” will drive the growth of Bitcoin and its ilk.
- It doesn’t matter whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins on November 5 for this to happen, the BlackRock CEO said.
- The remarks mark a turnaround for Fink, who was a crypto-skeptic three years ago.
Larry Fink says Bitcoin is poised to skyrocket no matter who is in the Oval Office.
Unlike other experts, who suggest the $1.2 trillion asset growth is a function of regulation, BlackRock CEO believes growth will come from improved analytics and greater acceptance by investors.
“I’m not sure either chair makes a difference,” Fink said during the company’s third-quarter earnings conference call with analysts Friday.
“I really don’t believe it’s a function of regulation,” he said. “It’s a function of liquidity (and) transparency.”
“Years ago when we started the mortgage market, years ago when the high-yield market came along, (it) got off to a very slow start,” he said. “It built as we created better analytics and data, and then better analytics and data, greater acceptance and a broader market. And I truly believe that we will see an expansion of the market for these digital assets.
Although Fink did not specify which mortgage company he was referring to, he implied that crypto is similar to other new financial products that tend to stagnate until they reach scale. For example, BlackRock, more than a decade ago, saw limited demand during a housing crisis as it studied distressed mortgage assets.
BlackRock did not respond to a request for comment on the mortgage analogy.
The remarks mark a turnaround for Fink, who sided with JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on the crypto-skeptical side of the debate in 2021. His comments last week are the latest sign of the CEO’s evolution BlackRock towards one of the most optimistic supporters of Bitcoin.
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Since the $11.5 trillion asset manager launched its Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund in January, the ETF has amassed billions in investments and broken record after record in traded volume.
Fink said on the call that the fund manager’s Bitcoin ETF has grown to $23 billion in its first nine months, “and we will continue to offer new products to make investing easier and more affordable”.
At the same time, BlackRock’s bullish marketing campaign on Bitcoin has been put to the test.
In a September investor note echoing the heady views of laser-eyed maximalists, BlackRock analysts compared Bitcoin to gold and touted its performance during acute geopolitical crises.
To be sure, Fink doesn’t classify this year’s hotly contested U.S. election in that category.
His comments echo those of Standard Chartered. The British bank predicts that Bitcoin will reach $200,000 in 2025 regardless of whether Donald Trump or Kamala Harris wins the November 5 US presidential election.
This is a key change from just a few months ago, when many in the crypto industry sided with the Republican candidate. With Trump, they saw the end of the Joe Biden administration’s crackdown on digital assets.
Since then, Trump and Harris have made overtures in support of cryptocurrency in their public statements.
Correction: The first bullet point of a previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Fink had said that Bitcoin would become as big as the US real estate market. Fink was referring to mortgage products he did not name.
Update: Adds more comments from Fink on the growth of digital assets.
Liam Kelly is a DeFi correspondent at DL News. Do you have any advice? Send him an email to liam@dlnews.com.
