BlackRock CEO Larry Fink gave perhaps his most full-throated endorsement of Bitcoin yet on Monday, dubbing himself a “major believer” in the world’s top cryptocurrency—while simultaneously framing the asset as a choice investment for those with pessimistic outlooks on the world.
“It is a legitimate financial instrument,” Fink said during an appearance on CNBC Monday morning. “I believe it is an instrument you invest in when you’re more frightened, though.”
Fink’s comments come just two days after a shooter attempted and failed to assassinate former president Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday. In the wake of the calamitous event—during which one rally attendee was killed and two others were critically wounded—Bitcoin spiked to its highest point in weeks.
“Political volatility is a catalyst for Bitcoin buying, and an assassination attempt on the leading Presidential candidate of the U.S. is an affront to democracy globally and reminds people of just how fragile the status quo is today,” Rich Rosenblum, co-founder of trading firm GSR, told Decrypt over the weekend.
Bitcoin ETF Helps Propel BlackRock to Record $10.6 Trillion Assets Under Management
BlackRock reached its highest value of assets under management (AUM) just six months after the explosive launch of its iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) in January. As of June 30, the financial giant held $10.65 trillion across its entire platform, up 13% year over year, according to its Q2 earnings report published on Monday. That’s well above its $10.2 trillion estimate for the second quarter, during which it hauled $51 billion in new client cash to its long term investment funds. “Organic growth w...
While Fink did not reference the Trump shooting on Monday, he did explain that he sees Bitcoin chiefly as an attractive investment for those with a negative view of where the world is headed.
“If you want to hedge hope, Bitcoin is not an instrument for hope,” Fink said. “I look at it as a vehicle in which you’re expressing… [that] you’re more frightened of the world, you’re more frightened [for] your existence.”
The BlackRock CEO made clear that he personally views the world more optimistically. But his company—the largest investment firm in the world, with over $10.6 trillion in assets under management—has gone all-in on crypto in recent months, in some indication of how Fink thinks the rest of the world is thinking.
Last summer, BlackRock appeared to singlehandedly shake up the fledgling campaign for a spot Bitcoin ETF by filing an application to list the product with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Within months, spot Bitcoin ETFs were a reality on Wall Street, with BlackRock leading the charge.
Bitcoin ETFs Continue Rebound With $1.35 Billion in Weekly Gains
Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) raked in $1.35 billion last week as BTC-centric funds recorded their fifth-best week on record, per data from CoinShares. According to the latest weekly report from the crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) provider, about $1.44 billion worth of assets poured into such crypto funds across the market, bringing the year-to-date total to a record $17.8 billion and putting even more distance between 2021’s previous record of $10.6 billion. Bitcoin dominated the...
Those moves played a major part in boosting BlackRock last quarter to its highest value of assets under management ever—an accomplishment that shattered Wall Street’s expectations.
BlackRock is further poised to soon become one of the first American issuers of spot Ethereum ETFs. The Wall Street giant also launched an Ethereum-based tokenized asset fund in March, which has so far been massively successful.
In a bizarre twist, the now-deceased individual identified as the Trump rally shooter by the FBI, Thomas Matthew Crooks, appeared in a BlackRock ad in 2022.
Edited by Andrew Hayward
