BlackRock Studying Cryptocurrencies
An article surfaced recently on the Financial News, claiming that BlackRock might be stepping into the cryptocurrency space, following the lead of other big financial institutions like Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan, and Goldman Sachs. The world’s largest global investment management company, with as much as 6.3 trillion in assets under management, has reportedly set up a team to scrutinize digital currencies and Blockchain, their underlying technology.
The working group allegedly counts respected and talented team members, the likes of Terry Simpson, Director of the multi-asset investment strategy at the firm, who according to Fink is “very excited” about the initiative and Blockchain technology in general.
Fink explained that the firm is studying cryptocurrencies, closely monitoring all kind of data to see how coins are performing and to understand how would other products in the space are working. He added:
“When It becomes more legitimized, when it has the true open nature of it that you identify who the players are on both sides, that’s when we will probably look at it as an alternative to other currencies.”
Impact on the Crypto Market
The move marks a complete shift from the critical stance the company has maintained towards cryptocurrencies. In fact earlier this year, Larry Fink held a bold statement while speaking of digital assets during the World Economic Forum annual meeting. While giving out credit to Blockchain technology for being “real” and having the potential to “transform the way we do business,” he called cryptocurrencies “more of an index of money laundering than anything more than that.” The news of the firm being interested somehow in cryptocurrencies triggered price gains and prompted higher than usual trading volumes.
