The international presence of digital assets gives them the power to transcend any one national currency like the U.S. dollar, said BlackRock CEO Larry Fink on Friday.
During an interview, the executive highlighted what makes crypto unique from other asset classes, and the role BlackRock can play in the space.
Democratizing Crypto Through ETFs
Speaking to CNBC, Fink highlighted BlackRock’s mission to “democratize investing,” by creating products that are cheap and easy for investors to use, and noted how that goal could extend to crypto assets.
“We believe we have a responsibility to democratize investing,” he said. “We’ve done a great job, and the role of ETFs in the world is transforming investing. And we’re only at the beginning of that,” he said.
An ETF, or exchange-traded fund, is a fund trading on an exchange that tracks a particular index. Investors buy shares of the fund, and fund managers use investor funds to buy stocks, bonds, crypto, or whatever the fund intends to track.
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Last month, BlackRock filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to launch a Bitcoin spot ETF in the United States. Since June, Bitcoin has rallied on optimism that BlackRock could be the first to get such a product approved, given its overwhelming success rate versus the SEC in the past.
Fink believes an increasing portion of the crypto market will be represented by ETFs down the line, and highlighted how the advent of a gold ETF ‘democratized” gold investing, by making it affordable to transact with the asset.
The CEO said BlackRock could do the same for crypto: “The cost to transact is quite expensive,” he said. “Over the last five years, more and more global investors are asking us about the role of crypto.”
Crypto VS Other Currencies
Fink also recognized crypto as an “international asset” that could “transcend any one currency,” citing U.S. dollar devaluation as a concern. “An international crypto product can really transcend that,” he said, adding that the asset class has attracted “broad-based” and “worldwide” interest.
His comments were well received by Bitcoin bulls like MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor, who often promote Bitcoin as a superior savings technology to dollars due to its limited supply.
Fink declined to speak on Bitcoin in particular saying he was prohibited due to his ongoing SEC filing. The SEC formally recognized the filing this week.
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