Key Highlights
- BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said turning assets into digital tokens can allow more people to buy small parts and give them access to the markets easily.
- He added that digital wallets, already used by many people, could also be used to hold these investments.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink said tokenization could help update the financial system by making investments easier to issue, trade, and access, placing the concept at the center of his latest annual letter.
In the latest annual letter, released today, Fink said that tokenization could improve the “plumbing” of finance and eventually expand access to investing for a far wider share of the global population. He pointed to the spread of digital wallets, saying that if those same tools could also support long-term investing, they could reshape how people interact with capital markets.
Making investing easier for more people
In the letter, Fink said that tokenization could help people get a share of markets that were once hard to reach. This includes private companies, infrastructure projects, and other long-term investments that usually require large amounts of money. By digitizing these assets, people could buy smaller portions, trade them more easily, and hold them in wallets on their phones.
He emphasized that tokenization could expand access to financial markets worldwide. Right now, billions of people watch their economies grow but cannot participate because they cannot invest. Digital wallets and tokenized assets could give these people a way to join markets, earn returns, and grow wealth alongside their countries’ economies.
“Half the world’s population carries a digital wallet on their phone. Imagine if that same digital wallet could also let you invest in a broad mix of companies for the long term—as easily as sending a payment,” Fink wrote. He added that this could bring more transparency and fairness to investing, letting people see what they own and trade it whenever they want.
A new approach to financial markets
Fink also said tokenization could modernize the financial system by updating the way assets are issued and traded. Instead of relying on slow, traditional methods, digital tokens could make the system faster, cheaper, and more efficient.
He linked this to a bigger goal of helping more people invest. He said giving more people access to investment opportunities could allow families to participate in wealth creation over decades. Even small, consistent investments could grow as the markets and economies grow, helping reduce the gap between those who own assets and those who do not.
“Families who invested broadly and consistently—through depression and war, through inflation, financial crises, and even a global pandemic—had the opportunity for their wealth to grow alongside their economies,” he said.
Fink concluded that tokenization is part of a larger effort to make investing accessible and inclusive. Technology, wallets, and digital tokens together could let millions of people invest for the long term, take part in private and public markets, and benefit from the growth of their economies.
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