Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, in a guest column he co-authored with BlackRock COO Rob Goldstein for The Economist, published on December 1, 2025.
They’re drawing a direct analogy between the nascent stage of asset tokenization today and the internet’s awkward adolescence in 1996—back when Amazon was barely a blip with $16 million in book sales, Google and Facebook were years away from existing, and the web felt more like a quirky experiment than a world-altering force.
Fink and Goldstein argue that tokenization—the process of converting real-world assets like real estate, bonds, or funds into digital tokens on blockchains—is on the cusp of explosive growth, much like how the internet went from dial-up novelty to economic juggernaut.
Register for Tekedia Mini-MBA edition 19 (Feb 9 – May 2, 2026): big discounts for early bird.
Tekedia AI in Business Masterclass opens registrations.
Join Tekedia Capital Syndicate and co-invest in great global startups.
Register for Tekedia AI Lab: From Technical Design to Deployment (next edition begins Jan 24 2026).
They highlight BlackRock’s own push into this space, including its Bitcoin ETF and tokenized money market funds, as early bets on a “next generation” of markets. It’s a bullish signal from one of Wall Street’s biggest players, especially as regulatory clarity (e.g., from the SEC and EU) starts to grease the wheels.
Why 1996 Feels Like a Fitting Comparison
To ground this historically: Internet in 1996: About 36 million users worldwide 0.9% of the population. Netscape was the hot browser, but e-commerce was a joke—Amazon launched in ’95 with minimal traction. No smartphones, no social media, and “broadband” was sci-fi.
Total tokenized assets under management are around $10-15 billion mostly stablecoins and funds, per recent estimates. It’s functional but clunky—regulatory hurdles, interoperability issues, and scalability lags persist. Yet, pilots from giants like BlackRock, JPMorgan, and HSBC suggest it’s scaling quietly.
If Fink’s right, we’re pre-dot-com boom: expect tokenized real estate marketplaces, instant cross-border settlements, and fractional ownership of everything from art to carbon credits to dominate by 2030. BlackRock’s already tokenizing its $7 trillion AUM empire, so this isn’t hype from a crypto bro—it’s a trillion-dollar asset manager saying, “Get ready.”
Tokenized funds represent a bridge between traditional finance (TradFi) and blockchain technology. In essence, they convert shares of investment funds—such as money market funds—into digital tokens on a public blockchain.
These tokens act as programmable, transferable representations of ownership in the underlying assets. Unlike traditional fund shares, which settle via slow, intermediary-heavy processes (often T+2 days), tokenized versions enable near-instant transfers, 24/7 trading, fractional ownership, and integration with decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
This reduces costs, enhances liquidity, and opens up new use cases like using fund tokens as collateral for loans.BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with over $10 trillion in assets under management (AUM), is at the forefront of this trend.
Tokenization aligns with CEO Larry Fink’s vision of digitizing capital markets, as he noted in late 2025 that it’s akin to the internet’s early days in 1996—poised for explosive growth. BUIDLBlackRock’s flagship tokenized offering is the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), launched in March 2024 on the Ethereum blockchain.
It’s a tokenized money market fund designed for institutional investors, providing exposure to short-term, high-quality assets like U.S. Treasuries and repurchase agreements (repos). As of November 2025, BUIDL has grown to approximately $2.5 billion in AUM, making it the largest tokenized money market fund globally.
The fund invests in cash equivalents yielding U.S. dollar returns typically 4-5% annually, based on prevailing rates. Unlike non-yielding stablecoins (e.g., USDC), BUIDL passes through yields directly to token holders via daily accruals, paid out in additional tokens or cash.
BlackRock manages the fund, with Securitize a BlackRock-backed firm handling token issuance, compliance, and transfers as the registered transfer agent. Shares are minted as ERC-20 tokens on Ethereum. Investors subscribe via Securitize Markets minimum $5 million investment for qualified institutions like hedge funds or private equity firms.
Tokens are custodied by options like BNY Mellon (traditional) or crypto-native providers (e.g., Anchorage Digital, BitGo, Coinbase, Fireblocks). Investors can redeem tokens for USD at net asset value (NAV), with blockchain enabling atomic (instant) settlements—cutting out intermediaries.
Initially Ethereum-only, BUIDL now operates across multiple blockchains for broader accessibility and DeFi integration:November 2024: Added Aptos, Arbitrum, Avalanche, Optimism’s OP Mainnet, and Polygon.
In May 2025, BlackRock introduced sBUIDL, a DeFi-wrapped version using Securitize’s sToken framework. This ERC-20 token unlocks composability—e.g., using BUIDL as collateral in permissioned lending pools or yield optimizers—while maintaining regulatory compliance. It has helped push BUIDL’s AUM past $1.7 billion earlier in 2025.
BlackRock envisions tokenizing $10 trillion of its AUM over time, including ETFs, real estate ($39 billion managed), and structured products. In September 2025, they advanced plans for tokenized ETFs, converting popular iShares funds into on-chain versions for faster creation/redemption and borderless trading.
Still, with pilots like BUIDL proving viability—hitting $1 billion AUM in under 40 days—BlackRock is betting big on tokenization as the “next generation infrastructure for finance.”