By Martin
Larry Fink, the head of the world's largest asset management firm BlackRock, has publicly stated that sovereign wealth funds are quietly joining the wave of Bitcoin investment. Once calling Bitcoin an "index of money laundering," BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has now become a significant driving force in the cryptocurrency market.
In 2017, he publicly criticized Bitcoin as being primarily associated with illicit activities. This shift occurred after 2020, when massive quantitative easing by global central banks raised concerns about the traditional monetary system, leading Fink to begin acknowledging that Bitcoin "could evolve into a global market." Today, he leads the world's largest spot Bitcoin ETF—the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT).
After receiving approval from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in January 2024, BlackRock launched a spot Bitcoin ETF. Its Bitcoin holdings now exceed 800,000 coins, making it one of the world's largest institutional holders of Bitcoin.
This institutionalization trend has caused the share of spot trading volume on compliant platforms to jump from 42% in 2024 to 79% in 2025, indicating that institutions are replacing retail investors as the dominant market force.
Sovereign wealth funds view Bitcoin as a "strategic allocation layer" rather than a speculative tool. Internally, BlackRock's perspective is that Bitcoin represents a long-term bet on monetary evolution and digital asset infrastructure.
Bitcoin's scarcity design (total supply of 21 million coins) and its decentralized nature make it a tool for hedging against fiat currency depreciation.
Bitcoin price volatility remains high. Fink describes it as a "fear asset," noting that its price rises during geopolitical tensions and falls on signals of peace. However, the operational strategy of sovereign funds is to buy on dips rather than chase highs.
As Bitcoin's correlation with the S&P 500 index strengthens, it is gradually evolving from a fringe asset into a legitimate component of institutional investment portfolios. The low-key positioning by sovereign funds is just the beginning of this transformation.
