BlackRock "Tokenization will change the financial landscape like the early internet"

Larry Fink, BlackRock Chief Executive Officer (CEO), and Rob Goldstein, Chief Operating Officer (COO), said they expect tokenization to drive structural changes in global financial markets.

On the 2nd, according to crypto-focused media The Block, the two executives wrote in a column for The Economist that "tokenization, which records asset ownership on a digital ledger, can modernize the financial system by improving efficiency and transparency," and that "a trend similar to the early internet reorganizing the order of information is beginning."

They explained that blockchain, by establishing the concept of a public ledger without intermediaries, has created the foundation to transfer and trade real assets such as real estate and corporate loans in the form of digital tokens. They highlighted as key that asset movements occur on a single verifiable record.

BlackRock is already expanding experiments with tokenized products. The U.S. Treasury-backed tokenized money market fund 'BUIDL' is operating on a public blockchain, and the real-world asset tokenization (RWA) market is estimated to have grown by about 300% over the past 20 months.

The two executives assessed tokenization as a link connecting traditional finance, stablecoin issuers, fintech, and public chains. They also projected that in the future it will become common to buy, sell, and hold various assets such as stocks, bonds, and digital assets in a single digital wallet.

Regarding regulation, they emphasized that "just because something is on the blockchain does not change the nature of the asset," and that an approach modernizing existing regulatory frameworks is necessary. While tokenization can increase financial access, they said corresponding safeguards are also essential.