Blackrock 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, Chief Investment Officer of Blackrock (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 the Head of the Global Allocation Investment Team at the Multi-Asset Strategies Group.
Responding to a question about the price of bitcoin and gold and whether it is a bitcoin bull, Rieder said:
I think cryptocurrency is here to stay.
Rieder added: “I think it’s resilient, and you’ve seen the central banks that have talked about digital money. I think the digital currency and acceptability – especially the acceptability of millennials – of technology and cryptocurrency is real. Digital payment systems are real, so I think bitcoin is here to stay. “
As to whether it’s a bitcoin bull, Rieder said: “I don’t do much of it, or much of it, in my portfolios, my corporate portfolios, my business portfolios.” Commenting “It’s hard to tell if it is [bitcoin’s] worth the price it is trading at today, ”he confirmed:
But do I think it’s a durable mechanism that could largely replace gold? 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. It is the largest asset management company on earth. 2021 is set to be a year of severe supply shortages versus demand in bitcoin, and upside down price displacements.
Thomas Lee, Head of Research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, said bitcoin was “killing it this year – it’s just smashing all hedges and other asset classes this year, but in 2021 I think bitcoin could be the year of fireworks … the best is probably yet to come. ”
Blackrock’s chief investment officer comments followed a series of other hedge fund managers saying they own bitcoin, including Paul Tudor Jones, Bill Miller, and Stan Druckenmiller.
What do you think of the Blackrock executive’s view on bitcoin? Let us know in the comments section below.
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