Blackrock CEO Calls Crypto a ‘Currency of Fear’ (Complimentary)

Blackrock CEO Larry Fink thinks bitcoin, which is currently priced at around $104,200, could go as high as $700,000. But that’s only if people get really nervous about the stability of their own currencies around the world. And while it’s anyone’s guess whether Fink’s logic is sound and people would indeed flock to crypto in times of crisis (that extremely common thesis hasn’t yet been proved), it’s certainly true that the election of Donald Trump has the potential to inject plenty of instability into the global economic landscape.

Fink made the prediction about bitcoin’s future price on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, while discussing the outlook of technologies like artificial intelligence and cryptocurrency with Bloomberg. Fink had previously been a skeptic of crypto in the late 2010s, saying back in 2017 that, “Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world.” But the billionaire changed his mind in more recent years, becoming a true believer in the promise of crypto by 2021.

Fink seems to not only believe that crypto is now a positive thing, but that this reliance on fear is actually an asset. The billionaire thinks people can make a lot of money from instability or at least the worries over instability around the world.

“As I became a student of crypto, it was very clear to me that crypto is a currency of fear. And that’s okay,” Fink during the panel Wednesday that’s available on YouTube.

Fink was sharing the stage with Peng Xiao, the CEO of AI company G42, who interjected with “to some extent” on Fink’s contention that fear drives bitcoin. But Fink just doubled down on the idea that it was “okay” for bitcoin’s fortunes to rely on fear.

“If you’re frightened of your debasement of your currency or you’re frightened of your economic or political stability of your country, you could have an internationally-based instrument called bitcoin that will overcome those local fears. And so I’m a big believer in the utilization of that as an instrument,” said Fink.

Fink went on to say that bitcoin’s price could reach “$500,000, $600,000, $700,000 per Bitcoin” while emphasizing “I’m not promoting that, by the way.”

Fink also said that he believed bonds and stocks should be “tokenized.” Why? That part isn’t clear, since it makes no fucking sense. But why not? We went through this same bullshit hype cycle a few years ago when everyone jumped on the NFT bandwagon and tokenizing things that didn’t need to be tokenized may very well have another resurgence.

“The fact that we are not moving forward in tokenization, every bond and stock is crazy,” said Fink. “We should be moving towards that frontier. Obviously, there’s winners and losers and all that. But we need to be prepared for the tokenization. And it would democratize more finance if we tokenized bonds and stocks.”

Fink also discussed the power needs of the enormous data centers that continue to be built around the world to serve the needs of AI. Those data centers require a great amount of power, which Fink addressed by talking about nuclear power as a potential fix.

“We need a lot of energy partners to be able to make this a viable global undertaking,” Fink said. “And hopefully this raises a conversation about what role nuclear play in the energy mix.”

Fink gave a nod to renewables, saying they would be part of the mix, but said that “unless fusion actually works and we have new sources of power,” there’s a need to work with what’s available.

There are some big questions about the future of the U.S. economy that are currently getting hashed out at Davos and beyond. Inflation, for instance, doesn’t seem to be something the ruling class is too scared about anymore, despite the 2024 U.S. presidential election essentially hinging on whether a new president would be able to get prices down.

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon was asked about Trump’s plans for across the board tariffs against Mexico and Canada, which are expected to get implemented around Feb. 1. And Dimon, who’s worth $2.7 billion, seemed very chill about the prospect.

“If it’s a little inflationary, but it’s good for national security, so be it. I mean, get over it,” Dimon told CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin on Wednesday.

That does sound like a good mantra for the wealthy in this new era of Trump: So be it, get over it. We’re probably going to be hearing that a lot if Trump manages to torpedo the economy. That’s probably not what most Trump supporters thought they were signing up for when they cast a vote for the 47th president. But that’s certainly what they’re going to get.