Larry Fink: Bitcoin Can Do a Lot for the Financial Space

Larry Fink – the CEO of BlackRock, which recently applied to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) – said he thinks bitcoin is akin to digital gold, and he feels it has the power to truly revolutionize the financial arena.

Larry Fink Thinks Highly of BTC

The application was initially rejected by Gary Gensler and the SEC, who claimed the details in the document were not comprehensive enough. However, a ray of light appeared in the form of the SEC not giving a flat-out “no,” which it’s done to other companies in the past. The financial agency said if Fink and BlackRock were willing to make certain changes to the application, it could be submitted again for a second look.

On this front, Fink said he’s willing to do all he can to cooperate. He commented in an interview:

We work really closely with our regulators, and we want to hear from our regulators. What are their issues, and can we fix those issues around that? We do believe if we can create more tokenization of assets and securities, and that’s what bitcoin is, it could revolutionize finance again. We look at this as an opportunity to move one step further in terms of providing investors fractions of shares, fractions of this, democratizing the cost of investing.

Fink is not the only one excited about the prospects of a BTC ETF. Changpeng Zhao – the man behind the Binance crypto exchange – recently engaged in a discussion regarding the power the tool might have and how much it could potentially do for the industry. He commented:

We welcome more players. The larger the better. It will offer more coverage.

One of the big issues that has been discussed lately is whether traditional financial companies – like BlackRock – pose threats to companies like Binance should they decide to enter the crypto industry as they’re doing now. Zhao doesn’t think so, mentioning:

Short answer is no. It would be hugely beneficial to crypto for large entities to come into the space… It will help us improve.

Fink continued his discussion of bitcoin and crypto, saying he was skeptical of both in the past on account of their associations with “illicit activities,” as he put it. However, he has since warmed up to the digital currency arena and said:

I do believe the role of crypto is digitizing gold in many ways.

Convincing the SEC

Fink concluded by commenting that he thinks BlackRock will not have any issues when it comes to convincing the SEC of the power of its bitcoin ETF given the firm’s longstanding track record. He said:

We have a good track record working with our regulators and trying to make sure we’re thinking about all the issues around any filing.