Blackrock CIO: Cryptocurrency Is Here to Stay, Bitcoin Could Replace Gold

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Blackrock’s Chief Investment Officer, Rick Rieder, said cryptocurrency, including bitcoin, “is here to stay.” In addition, he said bitcoin is a durable mechanism that could replace gold.

Blackrock on Bitcoin and Gold

Rick Rieder, Blackrock’s Chief Investment Officer (CIO) of Global Fixed Income, talked about bitcoin replacing gold in an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Friday.

Blackrock is the world’s largest asset manager, with more than $7.4 trillion in assets under management as of September. Rieder is also Blackrock’s Head of the Global Allocation Investment Team in the Multi-Asset Strategies Group.

Responding to a question about the price of bitcoin and gold and whether he is a bitcoin bull, Rieder said:

I think cryptocurrency is here to stay.

Rieder elaborated: “I think it is durable, and you’ve seen the central banks that have talked about digital currencies. I think digital currency and the receptivity — particularly millennials’ receptivity — of technology and cryptocurrency is real. Digital payment systems are real, so I think bitcoin is here to stay.”

In terms of whether he is a bitcoin bull, Rieder said: “I don’t do a lot of it, or much any of it, in my portfolios, my corporate portfolios, my business portfolios.” While stating that “It’s hard to say whether it’s [bitcoin’s] worth the price it is trading at today,” he affirmed:

But do I think it is a durable mechanism that could replace gold to a large extent? Yeah I do, because it’s so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around.

Reid’s comments were very welcome in the crypto community. Former Goldman Sachs hedge fund manager Raoul Pal tweeted: “This is huge news. This is the largest asset management firm on earth. 2021 is setting up to be a year of severe supply shortages vs. demand in bitcoin, and upside price dislocations.”

Thomas Lee, Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, commented that bitcoin is “killing it this year — it’s just crushing all other hedges and asset classes this year, but in 2021 I think bitcoin could be the year of the fireworks … the best is probably yet to come.”

The Blackrock chief investment officer’s comments followed a string of other hedge fund managers saying that they own bitcoin, including Paul Tudor Jones, Bill Miller, and Stan Druckenmiller.

What do you think about the Blackrock executive’s view on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.

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