Larry Fink, the chair and CEO of BlackRock, appeared alongside Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong to discuss how the company’s view on crypto has changed over the last eight years. Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit, Fink described his “big shift” from seeing crypto mainly as a tool for illicit finance to overseeing the world’s largest spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund.
During the panel, journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin asked Fink how his perspective on Bitcoin and crypto developed over time. Fink explained that moving from associating crypto with money laundering to managing billions of dollars in Bitcoin was a very public example of how his thinking had evolved. “My thought process always evolves,” he said.
Although Fink acknowledged BlackRock’s growing involvement in digital assets, he was not fully bullish on Bitcoin throughout the discussion. He referred to Bitcoin as “an asset of fear,” pointing out that its price often reacts to global news, including developments on US–China trade relations and the potential end of the war in Ukraine.
He warned that Bitcoin remains highly volatile:
“If you bought [Bitcoin] for a trade, it’s a very volatile asset. You’re going to have to be really good at market timing, which most people aren’t.”
Fink’s current stance differs sharply from his comments in October 2017, shortly before Bitcoin’s major bull run. At the time, he said the cryptocurrency demonstrated “how much demand for money laundering there is in the world.”
Since then, much has changed. In January 2024, BlackRock received approval from the United States Securities and Exchange Commission to launch one of the first spot Bitcoin ETFs. The iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) grew rapidly, reaching a peak value of around $70 billion.
In November, the ETF saw heavy net outflows amounting to more than $2.3 billion, including $463 million withdrawn on Nov. 14 and $523 million on Nov. 18. Despite this, Cristiano Castro, BlackRock’s business development director, said the firm remained confident in ETFs as “liquid and powerful instruments.”
Other major issuers competing in the spot Bitcoin ETF market include Grayscale, Fidelity, Bitwise, ARK 21Shares, Invesco Galaxy and VanEck.
