BlackRock wants to make it cheaper to trade Bitcoin, Larry Fink says

BLACKROCK chief executive officer Larry Fink called Bitcoin an “international asset” and said the money manager wants to use its heft to make it less expensive and easier to invest in the cryptocurrency.

“It costs a lot of money right now to transact Bitcoin,” Fink said on Wednesday (Jul 5) in an interview on Fox Business. “We hope our regulators look at these filings as a way to democratise crypto.”

The money management giant filed paperwork last month to set up an exchange-traded fund that invests directly in Bitcoin, which prompted a flurry of similar applications from rival issuers and a rally in Bitcoin’s price to more than US$30,000. Bitcoin rose more than 12 per cent in June alone and is up more than 80 per cent year-to-date.

Nasdaq recently refiled BlackRock’s application, adding details about the proposal to indicate that Coinbase Global will provide market surveillance for the new product. BlackRock wants to hear from US regulators such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, Fink said.

“We look at this as an opportunity,” Fink said. “We work really closely with our regulators.”

Bitcoin can represent an alternative, international asset akin to “digitising gold”, Fink said. Initially, he said, he was sceptical because “it was heavily used for, let’s say, illicit activities”. BLOOMBERG