BlackRock CEO — and former crypto skeptic — Larry Fink, along with chief operating officer Rob Goldstein, says tokenization will serve as a key bridge between the crypto sector and traditional finance, reinforcing the firm’s growing support for digital assets.
In a joint opinion piece published Monday in The Economist, Fink and Goldstein wrote that tokenization isn’t poised to replace the current financial system soon, but they expect it to help bring the two industries closer together.
“Think of it as a bridge being built from both sides of a river, converging in the middle,” they wrote. “On one side are traditional institutions; on the other are digital-first innovators — stablecoin issuers, fintechs, and public blockchains.”
“The two aren’t competing so much as learning to interoperate. In the future, people won’t keep stocks and bonds in one portfolio and crypto in another. Assets of all kinds could one day be bought, sold and held through a single digital wallet.”
BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with more than $13.4 trillion under management, is led by co-founder and CEO Larry Fink — once a crypto skeptic who has since reversed his stance.
Financial sector begins to recognize tokenization’s value
Fink and Goldstein wrote that, at first, it was difficult to grasp the “big idea” behind tokenization because it was wrapped up in the broader crypto boom, which “often looked like speculation.”
“But in recent years, traditional finance has seen what was hiding beneath the hype,” they said. “Tokenization can greatly expand the universe of investable assets beyond the listed stocks and bonds that dominate markets today.”
BlackRock has already moved into the space with its BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, or BUIDL — now the largest tokenized cash market fund, valued at around $2.8 billion since launching in March 2024.
Regulators need to let tokenized and traditional markets integrate
Fink and Goldstein stressed that tokenization must advance responsibly and within a clear regulatory framework. This, they said, requires policymakers to modernize rules so that traditional finance and tokenized markets can function together.
They pointed to how bond exchange-traded funds (ETFs) connected dealer-driven fixed-income markets with public exchanges, improving efficiency for investors.
“And now with spot Bitcoin ETFs, even digital assets are on traditional exchanges,” they wrote. “Each of these innovations builds bridges. The same principle applies to tokenization.”
“Regulators should aim for consistency: risk should be judged by what it is, not how it’s packaged. A bond is still a bond, even if it lives on a blockchain.”
