Morning Minute: Larry Fink Says Crypto, Tokenization Just Getting Started

The ETFs were the onboarding ramp and tokenization is what will take crypto to the next level. And BlackRock has a front row seat.

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

BlackRock’s Larry Fink had a lot to say about crypto yesterday.

And the primary takeaway - we’re just getting started.

On CNBC yesterday, Larry Fink praised how spot Bitcoin ETFs opened the door for mainstream investors.

Then he got specific on how tokenization is the future.

The world he envisions includes mutual funds, private credit, money markets, even real-world assets issued as tokens, settling near-instantly, with compliance baked into the token (who can hold it, where it can move, when it can trade).

He said BlackRock is building the tech to drop these products directly into digital wallets, cut settlement frictions, slash transfer/record-keeping costs, and give clients 24/7 portability.

He also stressed that Bitcoin still has a role, but sized responsibly.

“We’re just at the beginning of the tokenization of all assets, from real estate to equity to bonds, across the board.” — Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, on CNBC

ETFs are the on-ramp today; the bigger story is tokenizing pretty much everything tomorrow.

This is the playbook from the world’s biggest asset manager:

Overall, this means more people gaining access to these investment products, which is a win. And they’ll be able to trade more efficiently via blockchain with lower fees - win win.

But it might not be a complete win.

Ethereum was largely expected to be the home of RWA tokenization.

If that happens on BlackRock’s own rails (and other banks / institutions follow suit), that does hurt one aspect of the Ethereum bull case.

But there also may be a world where bringing that amount of assets and asset types onchain is more net bullish overall than it is bearish to the Ethereum tokenization bull case.

Time will tell…

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

More News

• All
• CT
• Coindesk
• Decrypt
• DLNews