BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has given strong support to the entire cryptocurrency sector as his company awaits approval to list a spot Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) in the United States. In a recent interview with Fox Business, the 70-year-old billionaire said cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin will revolutionize the fintech sector as we know and use it today. Fink’s statement contributed to the performance of the crypto sector today, with BTC trading at US$30,448 (approximately Rs.25 lakh rupees) and the overall valuation of the crypto market at US$1.19 trillion (approximately Rs.98,11,514 million).
crypto assets used to digitize gold, Fink said in his statement. In a proposal to US regulators, Fink said ETF filings could democratize cryptocurrencies by giving investors the option to opt for BTC, or other crypto assets could be used as a hedge against inflation.
“So that we can understand each other Bitcoin is an international good. It’s not based on any specific currency, so it can represent an asset that people can use as an alternative,” the veteran finance mogul says in a snippet shared by Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategywho is a BTC enthusiast himself.
Fink’s comments are similar to the opinions of Jeremy Allaire, the CEO of stablecoin issuer Circle Pay, who recently said that stablecoins can digitize the US dollar to overcome what Allaire described as an ongoing problem “dedollarization” on the market. When other countries around the world begin to reduce their reliance on the US dollar as a reserve currency or medium of exchange, the process is known as “de-dollarization.”
Allaire said the US could establish guidelines on the permitted uses of US dollar-backed stablecoins, which would help boost world investment in the dollar Web3 community.
In a hopeful vision of the future, Fink has advised US regulators to work with crypto industry players and create a systematic ecosystem.
“We could someday work with our regulators and get the application approved, and I have no idea what that will be like someday, but we’ll see how this all plays out,” Fink said.
From 2022, BlackRockwhich ranks as the world’s largest asset manager, has assets under management of US$8.7 trillion (approximately Rs.7,17,84,570 crore).
In June, the company’s iShares Bitcoin Trust was formed filed for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) that would allow investors to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are financial products that are regulated and can represent a wide range of different assets. An ETF also tracks the movements in the price of an underlying asset, providing people with an alternative way to profit from the asset’s price performance without actually owning a unit of it.