BlackRock’s Rick Rieder told CNBC on Wednesday that the world’s largest wealth manager had started entering the bitcoin space.
The remarks from Rieder, BlackRock’s chief investment officer for global fixed income, came the same day Bitcoin broke above $ 51,000 for the first time.
“Today the volatility is exceptional, but listen, people are looking for valuable warehouses,” Rieder said on Squawk Box. “People are looking for places that, assuming inflation will go up and debt go up, could go up in value. So we started looking at it a little.”
In January, BlackRock added Bitcoin futures as a potential investment for two of its funds, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The funds are BlackRock Strategic Income Opportunities and BlackRock Global Allocation Fund.
A number of other financial institutions like BNY Mellon and Mastercard have gained access to the crypto room in the past few days. BNY Mellon, the country’s oldest bank, will launch a digital assets unit later this year, while Mastercard intends to support certain cryptocurrencies on its formal network.
Electric vehicle maker Tesla announced last week that it had purchased $ 1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin with cash on its balance sheet and intends to accept the digital coin as payment for its products.
Bitcoin price has soared more than 70% this year, which contributed to a major rally that began in the fall. “In my opinion, technology has advanced and regulation has advanced to the point where some people feel it should be part of the portfolio. So that’s what drives the price up,” said Rieder .
Despite the growing seriousness of Bitcoin as an asset class, Rieder said on Wednesday that an investor’s engagement “depends on what the rest of your portfolio looks like”.
“We are holding a lot more money than before,” he said. “That’s because duration doesn’t work, interest rates don’t act as a hedge, so diversifying into other assets makes sense. It makes sense to me to keep some of your cash in crypto, but I wouldn’t go for a specific one.” Set allocation or goal setting. “
New York-based BlackRock had assets under management of $ 8.68 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter.
Rieder had previously spoken positively about the potential of Bitcoin and informed CNBC in November that it could “largely take the place of gold”. He added, “I think digital currency and the receptivity – especially millennials receptivity – to technology and cryptocurrency are real.”
