Larry Fink said today that the industry is taking steps towards tokenization.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said today on CNBC that he sees value in having an Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF), fueling speculation a spot ETH ETF will trade next after the record-breaking launch of spot Bitcoin ETFs.
“I see value in having an Ethereum ETF,” Fink said in an interview Friday.
Traders are speculating that spot ETFs holding other cryptocurrencies will follow the approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF. More than 58% of bets placed on Polymarket are in favor of an Ethereum ETF approval by the end of May.
Several large asset managers have filed for ETH exchange-traded products. These include BlackRock, Van Eck, Ark Invest & 21Shares, Fidelity, and Galaxy Research. Van Eck will be the earliest to receive a reply from the SEC, with a deadline set for May 23. BlackRock’s deadline is set for early August.
Fink’s comments come after the spot Bitcoin ETFs had record-breaking volumes on their first day of trading.
After a sleepy 2023, Ethereum has gotten off to an auspicious 2024, rallying 13% in the past two weeks, compared with Bitcoin’s 3.7% increase over the same timeframe. According to Coingecko, ETH trades for $2,967, a 2% jump on the day.
Fink said he believes all securities will be tokenized.
“These are just stepping stones towards tokenization,” he said, adding that the technology to tokenize everything already exists.
The head of the largest investment firm in the world ended with a direct counterargument to what is heard from high-profile politicians and bankers in the U.S.: by having a tokenized system “we eliminate all corruption.”