- BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink devoted a major section of his 2026 annual letter to championing tokenisation, calling it the key to making investing “as easy as sending a payment” and comparing its current stage to the internet in 1996.
- BlackRock now manages approximately US$150 billion (AU$238 billion) in digital-asset-connected AUM, including the world’s largest tokenised fund BUIDL at roughly US$2.85 billion.
- Fink simultaneously warned that Bitcoin could undermine America’s economic advantage “if investors begin seeing Bitcoin as a safer bet than the dollar”.
Larry Fink used BlackRock’s annual investor letter to argue that tokenisation is becoming a core part of financial infrastructure, stating that regulated digital wallets will eventually do much of what brokerage accounts do today.
In the March 23 letter, BlackRock’s chairman and chief executive described tokenisation as a “way to modernise” the financial system by making assets easier to issue, trade and access.
Tokenization could help accelerate that future by updating the plumbing of the financial system—making investments easier to issue, easier to trade, and easier to access.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock.He compared the technology’s current stage to the internet in 1996, framing it as an early but important shift rather than a sudden replacement for traditional finance.
The clearest part of that message was BlackRock’s push for digital wallets as an investing tool. Fink said the same wallet technology already used for payments could also let people hold long-term investments more easily.
He urged regulators to move faster on rules that connect traditional finance with digital markets, while keeping buyer protections, counterparty standards and identity checks in place.
BlackRock’s Blockchain Exposure
Fink tied that argument to BlackRock’s own balance sheet. He said the firm now oversees about US$150 billion (AU$214.5 billion) in digital-asset-linked businesses and products.
Its tokenised Treasury fund, BUIDL, has reached about US$2.85 billion (AU$4.1 billion) in assets, making it the largest tokenised fund in the market. Launched on Ethereum in 2024 through Securitize, the fund became tradable on Uniswap for pre-qualified investors in February 2026, alongside a BlackRock investment in UNI.
Related: Bitcoin’s ‘Muted’ Cycle: Why US$100K Became the Turning Point
BlackRock also manages US$65 billion (AU$93 billion) in stablecoin reserves and nearly US$80 billion (AU$114.4 billion) in digital asset exchange-traded products, including the largest Bitcoin ETF. Fink said those businesses were built in only a few years, but now it looks like he’s taking a more cautious stance on these sorts of financial vehicles.
The letter praised decentralised finance for making markets faster, cheaper and more transparent, but also reads that wider Bitcoin adoption could weaken the dollar’s position if investors begin treating the cryptocurrency as a safer store of value. He linked that risk to rising US debt.
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