03/25 update below. This post was originally published on March 24
Bitcoin and crypto have exploded onto Wall Street since BlackRock led the campaign to get a long-awaited, fully-fledged bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) approved (fueling wild predictions bitcoin could eventually replace the U.S. dollar).
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The bitcoin price has bounced back from the depths of a crash that’s wiped more than $2 trillion worth of value from the combined crypto market since October last year, adding 20% to climb above $71,000 per bitcoin, though some fear a fresh bitcoin price crash could be about to hit.
Now, as traders brace for an imminent Elon Musk crypto game-changer, the chief executive of BlackRock has predicted bitcoin and crypto could become a $500 million revenue generator for the company by 2030.
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In his annual 2026 shareholders’ letter, BlackRock chief executive Larry Fink, one of the most bullish bitcoin and crypto supporters on Wall Street, predicted that crypto, along with BlackRock’s other high-growth markets, could become $500 million revenue generators "in the next five years."
BlackRock, which manages almost 800,000 bitcoin worth $55 billion on behalf of clients via its market-leading spot bitcoin ETF, currently makes around an estimated $250 million in annual fees from its iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, according to a November Coindesk report.
03/25 update: BlackRock’s head of digital assets, Robbie Mitchnick, has branded most of crypto market “nonsense," revealing institutional investors are increasingly concentrating on bitcoin and ethereum.
The combined crypto market is made up of thousands of smaller cryptocurrencies that are valued at around $1 trillion, with bitcoin’s $1.4 trillion market capitalization followed by ethereum’s $265 billion.
Mitchnick, speaking at the Digital Asset Summit in New York in comments reported by Coindesk, told attendees that “the majority of that is nonsense,” revealing that BlackRock’s clients aren’t interested in crypto beyond bitcoin and ethereum.
In 2024, BlackRock followed up the launch of its game-changing spot bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) with a similar ethereum fund and has this year launched an ethereum staked ETF, offering yield to investors.
Mitchnick went on to predict bitcoin could act as diversifier during periods of technological upheaval, such as the artificial intelligence revolution, playing a role similar to gold’s traditional safe haven from geopolitical uncertainty.
“There are intersection points that are relevant… there’s clearly an advantage and an opportunity to play a role in the AI economy,” Mitchnick said.
“AI agents are very unlikely to use, you know, Fedwire and SWIFT. What is crypto? Crypto is computer-native money… AI is computer-native data and intelligence. And so there’s a natural symbiosis there.”
Meanwhile, BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (Buidl) has become the world’s largest tokenized fund, last year topping $2 billion in assets under management.
“BlackRock has already established early leadership in bringing institutional-quality products to the digital markets at scale, with nearly $150 billion in assets under management connected to digital assets,” Fink wrote.
“Our tokenized treasury fund has grown into the largest tokenized fund in the world, and we manage $65 billion of stablecoin reserves, alongside nearly $80 billion of digital asset exchange-traded products. We’ve built all of these franchises in just the last few years, and we’re studying opportunities to grow our position even further.”
Fink, who described capitalism as "working—just not for enough people,” has again predicted blockchain-based tokenisation—the idea that traditional assets like stocks, bonds, and real estate can be converted into onchain, crypto-based, tradable tokens—will fling open the doors to vast, untapped markets that crypto companies and banks are racing to reach first.
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Fink said tokenization could “update the plumbing of the financial system” by making access to investments easier and comparing the adoption of blockchain-based tokenization to the rapid development of the internet in the 1990s.
“Half the world’s population carries a digital wallet on their phone,” Fink wrote, pointing to research from Juniper. “Imagine if that same digital wallet could also let you invest in a broad mix of companies for the long term—as easily as sending a payment.”
Last year, Fink, speaking alongside Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong and New York Times journalist Andrew Ross Sorkin at a DealBook event, warned that the U.S. risks falling behind other governments if it fails to embrace the trends of tokenization and artificial intelligence.
“If we don’t spend enough faster on digitization and tokenization, other countries will beat us,” Fink said, echoing a November warning from U.S. president Donald Trump that China is trying to take on the U.S. as the world’s “capital of crypto.”
Fink also dismissed the idea espoused by the likes of Warren Buffett that bitcoin is fundamentally worthless, calling it an "asset of fear" that falls when people are less “fearful.”
"You own bitcoin because you’re frightened of your physical security. You own it because you’re frightened of your financial security. The long-term fundamental reason you own it because the debasement of financial assets, because of deficits," Fink said.