ARK Invest CEO Cathie Wood has highlighted BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s recent positive outlook on the tokenization of digital assets as a turning point for institutional investors. According to Wood, Fink’s shift in perspective could spark increased interest in cryptocurrencies among pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and large asset managers. She notes that such major players typically follow the attitudes of industry leaders before embracing new asset classes.
BlackRock’s global influence
Under Larry Fink’s leadership, BlackRock stands as the world’s largest asset manager, overseeing roughly $14 trillion in assets. In May, the company stated that crypto investments had entered “a new phase.” During the LAIF26 conference in Los Angeles, BlackRock initiated discussions on the role of Bitcoin within institutional portfolios.
Wood points out that BlackRock not only shapes market sentiment but also steers the industry through its widely-used Aladdin platform. This global portfolio management system is favored by almost all major asset management institutions. With Fink emphasizing tokenization, Wood believes that every company using Aladdin is now keenly aware of this technology, broadening its distribution across the financial sector.
Wood states that by placing tokenization at the center of its infrastructure, Fink has made it inevitable for portfolio managers using Aladdin to adopt this approach as well. She stresses that the main objective here is distribution, not price.
Before what Wood calls the “permission granted” era, BlackRock had already been advising institutional investors in private events that Bitcoin could occupy as much as 28 percent of their portfolios—a position the company publicly introduced only recently.
Larry Fink’s evolving stance
Back in 2017, Fink infamously dubbed Bitcoin a “money laundering index.” At the time, Bitcoin traded near $5,685. Fast forward to today, BlackRock’s iShares Bitcoin Trust holds approximately 810,000 BTC, with assets totaling $62 billion, making it the largest dedicated Bitcoin fund globally.
Fink stated in his annual letter to shareholders that by 2026, tokenization will become an integral part of the financial system. He likened this shift to the internet revolution of 1996, predicting that everything from bonds to private loans will eventually reside on-chain.
Institutional momentum and market dynamics
While Wood spotlights the transformative potential of giant institutional investors, data shows their current influence in the crypto space is already significant. Institutional investors now claim 38 percent of total spot Bitcoin ETF assets, up from 24 percent just one year ago. Altogether, US-based spot Bitcoin ETFs have surpassed $100 billion in total assets, with BlackRock’s IBIT fund comprising about 49 percent of that figure.
In the first quarter of 2026, IBIT saw net inflows on 48 out of 62 trading days, amounting to $8.4 billion in new investments. During this period, as Bitcoin’s price slid from above $90,000 to just over $70,000, individual investors sold while institutions bought the dip.
ARK Invest made its first Bitcoin purchase in 2015 at around $250 per coin. Based on the firm’s models, if adoption continues at a high rate, tokenized global financial assets could exceed $10 trillion by 2030. As institutional investors gain market share rapidly, Wood argues that this group must accelerate its involvement even further.
