The CEO of American investment firm BlackRock, Larry Fink, highlighted the potential of digital assets and tokenization for the asset management industry in his annual letter from the company’s chairman.
The letter was published on March 15 and covered various topics that the firm has been interested in over the past year, including digital assets. Fink highlighted the growing and sustained interest in these asset types despite the FTX disaster.
He said that in addition to the hype, “interesting developments” are taking place in space. He highlighted “significant advances” in digital payment solutions that are helping to promote financial inclusion in many emerging markets such as India, Brazil and Africa.
However, according to Fink, emerging markets are not at the same pace in terms of innovation:
“On the contrary, many developed markets, including the US, are lagging behind in innovation, resulting in much higher payment costs.”
BlackRock currently manages approximately $8 trillion in assets and is one of the largest asset managers in the world. Fink said there could be some “exciting applications” to the technology behind these digital asset innovations in the asset management industry.
In particular, he praised the tokenization of asset classes with their potential to “improve efficiency in capital markets, shorten value chains, and increase value and access for investors.”
His statement ended by not losing sight of the risks and need to regulate the cryptocurrency space, but still indicated that the company will continue to explore digital assets in the future.
Related: It’s Not the End of Cryptocurrency: EU Wealth Manager Gives 5 Reasons Why
This is not the first time Fink has commented on decentralized finance. After the fall of FTX, he commented that the FTX token caused the fall of the exchange because it goes against “every foundation of what a cryptocurrency is.”
However, in the same conversation, he openly called the underlying technology of cryptocurrency and blockchain revolutionary.
Back in September 2022, BlackRock launched a new ETF that invests in 35 blockchain-related companies.
