BlackRock CEO praises Bitcoin role as asset of fear in portfolio strategy

Speaking at The New York Times’ DealBook Summit in New York this week, Fink told interviewer Andrew Ross Sorkin that his thinking on Bitcoin had changed dramatically over the past eight years. The asset manager, which once kept its distance from crypto, now runs the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), one of the first U.S. spot Bitcoin ETFs approved in January 2024 and a product that has grown into the largest vehicle of its kind.

Fink said his journey from skepticism to large-scale exposure was “a very glaring public example of a big shift in [his] opinions,” contrasting it with his 2017 description of Bitcoin as “an index for money laundering.” He explained that conversations with clients and policymakers, along with growing demand for regulated exposure, had pushed BlackRock to launch a spot ETF that now holds a significant share of circulating Bitcoin.

At the same panel, Fink stressed that he does not see Bitcoin as a straightforward speculative trade. He called it “an asset of fear,” saying investors often buy BTC when they worry about geopolitics or the stability of their financial assets, and pointed to episodes when Bitcoin’s price dropped on news of progress in a U.S.–China trade deal or potential de-escalation in the war in Ukraine. In his view, those reactions underline how strongly the asset is tied to sentiment around risk and global uncertainty.

Fink also warned that Bitcoin remains highly volatile and not suitable for everyone. “If you bought [Bitcoin] for a trade, it’s a very volatile asset. You’re going to have to be really good at market timing, which most people aren’t,” he said, adding that short-term swings are often amplified by leveraged players in the market.

IBIT has become a central part of BlackRock’s digital-asset business. Launched in January 2024 after U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission approval, the fund reached a peak value of about $70 billion in assets under management and, according to some estimates, has at times held more than 3% of the total Bitcoin supply. That scale has made it one of the largest institutional holders of BTC globally.

The ETF has also seen periods of heavy outflows. In November 2025, IBIT recorded more than $2.3 billion in net redemptions for the month, including withdrawals of roughly $463 million on November 14 and $523 million on November 18, as risk sentiment weakened across crypto markets. Despite that, BlackRock has continued to attract fresh capital; separate data show the fund logged a net inflow of about $119.66 million on December 2, coinciding with a rebound in Bitcoin from its late-November lows.

BlackRock executives have repeatedly argued that spot ETFs give institutions and retail investors a more familiar way to hold Bitcoin inside existing brokerage and portfolio frameworks. Cristiano Castro, the firm’s business development director, recently described ETFs as “liquid and powerful instruments” when asked about IBIT’s swings in inflows and outflows, saying that the vehicle is designed to handle rapid changes in demand.

Fink’s latest comments come alongside a broader expansion of BlackRock’s digital-asset strategy beyond Bitcoin. The firm already operates the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), a tokenized cash market fund that has grown to around $2.8 billion and sits on public blockchain infrastructure. In a recent opinion article co-authored with BlackRock chief operating officer Rob Goldstein, Fink argued that tokenization is emerging as a bridge between traditional finance and crypto, allowing stocks, bonds and other assets to be held in a single digital wallet over time.

In that essay, the two executives compared tokenization’s current phase to the “early internet era” of financial technology and said they expect regulators to update rules so that traditional and tokenized markets can work together safely. They emphasized that tokenization is unlikely to replace the existing system outright, but could streamline settlement, improve transparency and expand the universe of investable assets beyond today’s listed securities.

For now, Fink’s description of Bitcoin as both an “asset of fear” and a hedge against uncertainty captures BlackRock’s dual approach: acknowledging the cryptocurrency’s volatility and speculative episodes while embedding it inside regulated products aimed at long-term portfolio construction. With Bitcoin trading near $92,800 and BlackRock’s ETF among the dominant vehicles in the market, his public shift from critic to large-scale participant marks a notable change in how one of Wall Street’s biggest firms engages with the asset.