Larry Fink's narrative on Bitcoin has changed in recent years.
Larry Fink, political scientist, businessman, financier and CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest fund management company, said in a recent conversation with the Council on Foreign Relations that Bitcoin can evolve into a global market.
Fink’s narrative towards the largest cryptocurrency by market cap has been changing over time. Fink went from pointing to Bitcoin as an asset for money laundering in 2017 to saying today that the cryptocurrency can transform global financial markets.
His opinion regarding Bitcoin is quite relevant for the crypto community considering that the American businessman runs the largest investment fund in the world, which has almost $10 trillion under management. Because of this, Fink is considered “the most powerful man in the stock market” or “the man who “fixes” things in the financial market,” according to the BBC.
Fink's recent comments highlight the Wall Street Transition from negative to optimistic regarding Bitcoin.
In recent years, Bitcoin has conquered great businessmen and economists like Bill Miller, Michael Saylor, Ray Dalio, Steve Wozniak, Cathie Wood, Eric Schmidt, Jim Messina, Tim Cook, Rick Rieder, among others. Even the defender of the gold medal Peter Schiff recently launched a digital art project based on Ordinals, the NFT protocol on the Bitcoin network.
BlackRock opens the doors to Bitcoin
After a turbulent 2022, Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have regained investor interest.
Although some believed that the end of the crypto industry had come after the implosion of the Terra blockchain ecosystem in May of last year and the debacle of the FTX exchange in November, a week ago BlackRock filed a registration request with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). to create a Bitcoin spot exchange-traded fund or ETF.
So far, the SEC has rejected 28 Bitcoin spot ETF applications, dampening crypto investors' hopes of being able to access Bitcoin directly from a regulated investment product on US soil. However, BlackRock's recent filing with the SEC has renewed optimism towards cryptocurrency.
While this application has not yet been approved by the US securities regulator, the crypto community is hopeful that the SEC may give the green light to this investment product. Firstly, because it comes from the world’s largest fund manager and because it includes a “shared surveillance” strategy focused on sharing information about cryptocurrency trading and activity in the market in order to reduce the risk of manipulation.
BlackRock’s Bitcoin ETF application prompted other asset managers, including Invesco, WisdomTree and Valkyrie Investments, to seek SEC approval for their own spot Bitcoin ETFs.
Global Allocation Fund and Microtrategy shares
In addition to this, BlackRock has integrated Bitcoin into its $15.000 billion Global Allocation Fund, so that investors can access cryptocurrency in a trusted and regulated manner through this investment vehicle. In August 2022, BlackRock created the private investment fund to offer direct exposure to Bitcoin to its investors and launched a new crypto custody service aimed at institutional clients.
On the other hand, the world's largest asset manager owns $156,8 million in MicroStrategy stock, the largest institutional investor in Bitcoin, with over 140.000 BTC in its reserves. BlackRock has a 6% stake in MSTR stock.
Bitcoin gains 13% this week
Bitcoin is trading on the market above the $ 30.000 dollars per unit at the time of writing. According to data from CoinMarketCap, Bitcoin is up 13,53% over the past week, although it is down slightly by 1,7% in the past few hours.
Continue reading: BlackRock Adds Bitcoin to Its $15.000 Billion Global Allocation Fund
Main image from New York Post
