BlackRock CEO Larry Fink declares Bitcoin an asset class comparable to gold

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Bitcoin (BTC) is an asset class, comparing its investment potential to that of gold.

In a recent earnings call, Fink emphasized that the world’s largest asset manager now sees Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional commodities.

Bitcoin is an asset class

“We think Bitcoin is an asset class in itself. It’s an alternative to other commodities like gold,” the 71-year-old said on the call, noting that BlackRock is discussing a potential allocation with global institutions .

Fink also stressed that the future success of digital assets will not depend solely on regulation. He stated that liquidity and transparency will be more decisive in determining the evolution of the market.

The CEO compared the current landscape of virtual assets and the $11 trillion mortgage market. He noted that crypto is still in its infancy, but could see similar growth as better data and analytics become available.

“We’ve seen it before with the mortgage and high-yield markets. It started slowly, but as better analytics and data were introduced, the market gained wider acceptance,” he remarked.

Digitization of national currencies

The California native also addressed the digitization of national currencies. He specifically mentioned the potential of a digital US dollar and the role it would play. He highlighted what he sees as examples of success from India and Brazil, which have adopted the technology.

In addition, Fink believes that the integration of artificial intelligence and improved data analytics could drive the expansion and wider acceptance of digital asset markets.

His comments coincided with a surge in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows. October 14 marked one of the strongest days for the financial product since its debut in January.

Data from Farside Investors shows that local Bitcoin ETFs attracted $555.9 million in new inflows that day alone. BlackRock’s own IBIT ETF took in $79.5 million, ranking third in inflows behind Fidelity’s FBTC, which led the day with $239.3 million, and Bitwise’s BITB, which took in 101 .1 million dollars.

The global investment management firm’s adoption of Bitcoin has been pivotal in the crypto space. In January, it launched a spot Bitcoin ETF that drove the price of the cryptocurrency to all-time highs.

He repeated the trick in July, expanding his portfolio of digital assets by introducing a one-time Ethereum ETF. Although the latter attracted modest inflows compared to its Bitcoin counterpart, the company still considers it a moderate success.

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