{"id":4896,"date":"2023-03-17T17:38:42","date_gmt":"2023-03-17T17:38:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ci02ba7619000027df"},"modified":"2025-01-28T14:20:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-28T14:20:26","slug":"blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-on-digital-assets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-on-digital-assets","title":{"rendered":"BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Describes Digital Assets\u2019 Advancement In Annual Shareholder Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"bsf_rt_marker\"><\/div><figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/bitcoin-2023-website-article-banner.png\" title=\"\"><\/figure>\n<p>In an annual shareholder letter sent by BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, Fink described how the digital assets industry has witnessed \u201cvery interesting developments.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">JUST IN &#8211; BlackRock: &quot;Very interesting developments&quot; are happening in <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Bitcoin?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Bitcoin<\/a> and crypto &#8211; SEC filing<\/p>\n<p>In emerging markets it&#39;s &quot;bringing down costs and advancing financial inclusion.&quot; \ud83d\ude4c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fxdjF0uOm0\">pic.twitter.com\/fxdjF0uOm0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Bitcoin Magazine (@BitcoinMagazine) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BitcoinMagazine\/status\/1636106088830386177?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">March 15, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Specifically, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/Archives\/edgar\/data\/0001364742\/000119312523071379\/d479426ddefa14a.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fink highlights<\/a> the growth of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency usage in India, Brazil and parts of Africa. He describes how \u201cdramatic advances in digital payments\u201d are \u201cbringing down costs and advancing financial inclusion.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Bitcoin Magazine has closely followed these advancements in Bitcoin adoption, such as the growth in bitcoin <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/markets\/india-sees-massive-bitcoin-transaction-increase-fueled-by-new-generation\">transactions in India<\/a>, the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/bitcoin-beach-brazil-inspire-el-salvador\">Bitcoin Beach Brazil project<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/culture\/bitcoin-ekasi-township-one-year-later\">Bitcoin Ekasi in South Africa<\/a> and many more, all clear examples of increasing usage in countries where sovereign digital money is needed most. <\/p>\n<p>Fink goes on to note that developed markets like the United States are lagging behind in comparison, leaving the cost of payments higher, in what may be a reflection on the United States\u2019 own recent actions of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sec.gov\/news\/press-release\/2023-25\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">cracking down on large exchanges<\/a>. In addition, <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/business\/silvergate-bank-announces-liquidation-and-winding-down\">the collapse of the banks<\/a> which provided financial services to these exchanges has further stifled the industry. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn particular, the tokenization of asset classes offers the prospect of driving efficiencies in capital markets, shortening value chains, and improving cost and access for investors,\u201d Fink writes. \u201cAt BlackRock we continue to explore the digital assets ecosystem, especially areas most relevant to our clients such as permissioned blockchains and tokenization of stocks and bonds.\u201d Although he is discussing the tokenization of existing assets, it is curious to consider whether BlackRock and similarly large financial institutions will see through the veil of the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/markets\/federal-government-will-guarantee-all-deposits-at-svb-signature-bank\">government\u2019s response<\/a> to the recent bank collapses, and consider the primary use case of blockchain technology to be the <a href=\"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/hyperbitcoinization\">tokenization of sound money<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>This, after all, was its first use case \u2014 in the form of Bitcoin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile the industry is maturing, there are clearly elevated risks and a need for regulation in this market,\u201d Fink concludes. \u201cBlackRock is committed to operational excellence, and we plan to apply the same standards and controls to digital assets that we do across our business.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Billionaire Larry Fink has been keeping an eye on the advancement of digital assets, according to his recent shareholder letter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2730,"featured_media":2709,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1235,79,653,78,93],"class_list":{"0":"post-4896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business","8":"tag-billionaire","9":"tag-blackrock","10":"tag-digital-assets","11":"tag-larry-fink","12":"tag-news"},"author_data":{"id":2730,"name":"BtcCasey","nicename":"casey","avatar_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/jn_tjlo_400x400.jpg"},"featured_image_url":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/draper-moon-rocket-bitcoin-studio-demo-pitch.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2730"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoinmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}