Isabelle Mateos y Lago, a global macro investment strategist in the BlackRock Investment Institute, says the company is closely following bitcoin and its interesting development. BlackRock is one of the biggest investment companies in the world, managing more than 5.7 trillion dollars.
In an interview for Bloomberg a few days ago, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock, said the cryptocurrencies are not constituted as investment assets. Nevertheless, Fink is looking closely at bitcoin and he is actively following its progress and fast development.
At the World Economic Forum in Davos, the CEO of BlackRock characterized the crypto ecosystem as the “money laundering index”. Fink said earlier that BlackRock is not planning on entering the future bitcoin-based ETF arena (Exchange-traded fund).
After the dust following the recent hacker attack on the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck has settled, Mateos y Lago has not completely rejected the possibility of investment in bitcoin. She said: “The fact the interest for the cryptocurrencies remained present despite the repeating hacker attacks and the efforts from the regulators to deal with the new technology and prevent its illegal use, suggests the cryptocurrencies are a good thing.”
The stance of BlackRock is similar to the stance of Marcus Mueller from Deutsche Bank, who expects to see a new regulatory frame for the cryptocurrencies in the next five to ten years. Mueller thinks these new regulations would treat the cryptocurrencies as an official asset class.
Mateos y Lago added: “There are a lot of ways to enter the cryptocurrency market, but the question is, are they safe?” It is hard to determine the fair value of the cryptocurrencies, which keeps away many traditional investors.
