BlackRock (NASDAQ: BLK) CEO Larry Fink on Thursday said the global financial system is undergoing a seismic transformation — from stablecoins and prediction markets to tokenization and regulatory reform, with Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC) now playing a central, strategic role.
What Happened: Speaking at The New York Times DealBook Summit, Fink said several sovereign wealth funds are actively accumulating Bitcoin, adding at key price levels around $120,000, $100,000, and even the $80,000s.
These institutions, he stressed, are not treating BTC as a trading instrument but as a long-horizon strategic reserve asset.
"They're buying it with purpose," Fink said, reinforcing his view that Bitcoin is a long-term position, not a speculative trade.
He also reiterated Bitcoin's role as a "fear asset," one investor turn to during geopolitical uncertainty or periods of financial stress.
Still, he warned that volatility remains high due to leveraged offshore players and speculative flows.
On regulation and lobbying, Fink echoed Jamie Dimon' s caution about avoiding the appearance of influence-buying, noting BlackRock splits donations evenly and proceeds carefully.
What's Next: Fink sees a future where every asset, stocks, bonds, real estate, is digitized and tokenized, eliminating intermediaries and enabling money to move frictionlessly between digital wallets and investments.
He warned that the U.S. is falling behind countries like India and Brazil in building modern digital financial infrastructure.
Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong agreed, arguing that banks are resisting stablecoins to protect profits but will eventually adopt them, and may even issue interest-bearing stablecoins.
On AI, Fink said the world doesn't yet know whether it's overspending or underspending, but demand for compute will continue to explode.
Major winners, and major failures, are coming, but the U.S. must accelerate or risk losing technological leadership.