One of the planet’s biggest asset managers, Blackrock, has recently joined in on the crypto craze. The news comes shortly after interest for cryptocurrencies reached an all-time high, to the point that numerous mainstream media and news outlets have been continuously covering the industry for some time now, with mixed reactions. Many praise crypto as a true alternative, whereas others condemn it and see it as a threat to the pre-existing traditional financial systems.
Blackrock was reported to be including BTC futures in January. The reason for this was because there had been a desire to include the futures as a sort of eligible investment in 2 of the company’s funds. This is also the very first time that the corporation has granted any kind of exposure related to cryptocurrency to its customers.
Big-time industries paying attention to crypto at last
It should be mentioned that Blackrock had previously gotten involved in BTC futures contracts before, as it had purchased a relatively small position which was worth nearly $6.5 million in March. As the company had almost $8.7 trillion in assets under management (AUM), this was a trivial amount by comparison. Nevertheless, it was still a strong indication that major companies and industry heads were starting to take crypto seriously at last.
Now though, as a result of the cryptocurrency industry’s rapidly rising popularity, Blackrock is increasingly comfortable with accepting crypto much more openly and subsequently using it as investments. Larry Fink, the Chief Executive Officer of Blackrock, had said that cryptocurrency might very well be a fantastic asset class, saying that he is intrigued by people’s increasing fascination with it.
Cautious optimism by Blackrock
Fink remained a bit skeptical about cryptocurrencies and whether the industry could eventually take fiat’s place, despite his fascination with the industry. He claimed that he does not believe that crypto can serve as a true substitute for pre-existing currencies and that the focus should be on treating it, as he had already mentioned before, an asset class.
Furthermore, unlike Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, Blackrock noted that there was relatively much less demand for crypto by its institutional clientele. This only served to further Fink’s argument that although cryptocurrencies are certainly useful when it comes to long-term investments such as pension funds, independent wealth funds, large family offices, retirement plans and services, and so on, then crypto still only plays a minor role when compared to other types of financial and investment conversations.
