BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said Bitcoin (BTC) is an asset class, comparing its investment potential to that of gold.

In a recent earnings call, Fink emphasized that the world’s largest asset manager now views Bitcoin as an alternative to traditional commodities.

Bitcoin Is an Asset Class

“We believe Bitcoin is an asset class in itself. It is an alternative to other commodities like gold,” the 71-year-old said during the call, highlighting that BlackRock is discussing potential allocation with global institutions.

Fink also stressed that the future success of digital assets will not rely solely on regulation. He claimed that liquidity and transparency will be more crucial in determining the markets evolution.

The CEO compared the current landscape of virtual assets and the $11 trillion mortgage market. He noted that crypto is still in its infancy but could experience similar growth as better data and analytics become available.

“We’ve seen this before with the mortgage and high-yield markets. It started slow, but as better analytics and data were introduced, the market gained broader acceptance,” he remarked.

Digitization of National Currencies

The California native also addressed digitizing national currencies. He specifically mentioned the potential for a digital U.S. dollar and the role it would play. He highlighted what he considered successful examples from India and Brazil, which have adopted the technology.

Furthermore, Fink believes the integration of artificial intelligence and improved data analytics could potentially drive the expansion and broader acceptance of digital asset markets.

His remarks coincided with a surge in spot Bitcoin ETF inflows. October 14 marked one of the strongest days for the financial products since their debut in January.

Data from Farside Investors shows that spot Bitcoin ETFs attracted $555.9 million in new inflows on that day alone. BlackRocks own IBIT ETF drew $79.5 million, ranking third in inflows behind Fidelity’s FBTC, which led the day with $239.3 million, and Bitwise’s BITB, which pulled in $101.1 million.

The global investment management firm’s embrace of Bitcoin has been pivotal in the crypto space. In January, it launched a spot Bitcoin ETF that propelled the cryptocurrency’s price to record highs.

It repeated the trick in July, expanding its digital asset portfolio by introducing a spot Ethereum ETF. While the latter attracted modest inflows compared to its Bitcoin counterpart, the company still considers it a moderate success.