BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company: Bitcoin may evolve into a global market asset

The head of BlackRock , the world's largest asset management company, recently made a rare positive statement about Bitcoin, believing that Bitcoin may evolve into a global market asset.

BlackRock 's well-known funds include BlackRock Global Asset Allocation Fund, BlackRock World Mining Fund, BlackRock Latin America Fund, BlackRock Emerging Europe Fund, BlackRock World Energy Fund and BlackRock New Energy Fund.

Although Bitcoin has attracted much attention from individual investors, due to its special nature, large mainstream institutions have been reluctant to respond positively to such assets. However, as Bitcoin has played an excellent hedging role during this year's epidemic crisis, institutions have begun to pay more and more attention to such assets.

The price of Bitcoin recently broke the 2017 record and once set a new historical high. However, after failing to break through the important mark of 20,000 US dollars, it fell below 18,500 US dollars.

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said in a conversation with former Bank of England Governor Mark Carney on Tuesday (1st) local time that although Bitcoin did not attract his attention, it did attract the attention of Wall Street.

Fink believes the cryptocurrency could evolve into a global market asset. “These huge amounts of (money) are moving every day… It’s a thin market. Can it evolve into a global market? Probably.”

Data from Block Research shows that in November, Bitcoin’s monthly on-chain transaction volume increased 47% year-on-year to $135.72 billion (the third highest in Bitcoin’s history), compared to $92.09 billion the previous month.

Growing interest in Bitcoin has helped it outperform stocks, gold and a host of other traditional assets so far this year.

So far in 2020, the price of Bitcoin has risen nearly 170%. In comparison, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has risen 4.7% so far this year, the S&P 500 has risen more than 13.5% over the same period, and the Nasdaq has risen nearly 38%.

Meanwhile, gold has risen 19.4% this year, with prices of the metal, which is used as a risk hedge, having recently pulled back due to the emergence of effective COVID-19 vaccines.

Institutional Bull

Since the rise in March this year, there has been endless speculation about Bitcoin's "institutional bull" (that is, institutional funds are the biggest driving force behind Bitcoin's rise).

Fink's comments come after BlackRock's chief fixed income investment officer Rick Rieder speculated last month that Bitcoin could overshadow gold and could one day "replace gold to a large extent."

Hedge fund luminaries including Paul Tudor Jones and Stanley Druckenmiller have also recently extolled the virtues of the emerging asset class.

Just last Friday, Wall Street giant Guggenheim Partners submitted documents to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), stating that it would invest 10% of its net assets, approximately US$500 million, in the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC).

GBTC is already traded on the OTC market, with a fund size of approximately $12 billion. It closed at $23.74 on Tuesday, up 2.36%.

According to media statistics, if the bitcoins held by foreign trust funds, listed companies, cryptocurrency exchanges, governments, and cryptocurrency projects are added together, Wall Street currently controls 47.9% of the current Bitcoin supply.

Source: Cailianshe