Hey, it’s Marc.
Larry Fink doesn’t do pilot programs anymore.
On Tuesday, the CEO of the world’s largest asset manager—$13.46 trillion in AUM—told Wall Street that BlackRock is building proprietary tokenization technology to rebuild capital markets on-chain.
“We need to be tokenizing all assets, especially assets that have multiple levels of intermediaries,” Fink said during Q3 earnings. He called it “the next wave of opportunity for BlackRock over the next tens of years.”
— BlackRock Inc. CEO Larry Fink
The goal? To onboard the next generation of investors. What Larry Fink meant:
“If we can tokenize an ETF, we can bring investors who start with crypto into traditional long-term products. Over the next decade, we’ll move away from traditional assets by repotting them in a digital form and keeping investors inside that ecosystem.”
Let’s unpack.
What Happened
BlackRock confirmed it’s developing in-house tokenization infrastructure to digitize ETFs, equities, bonds, and real estate.
“We’re at the beginning of tokenization of all assets,” including real estate, equities, and bonds.
Fink basically told Wall Street that the world’s largest asset manager, $13.4 trillion AUM, is preparing to rebuild capital markets on-chain.
And “It is our belief that we need to be moving rapidly”.
The numbers back the urgency. Q3 delivered record results: $205 billion in net inflows, record AUM of $13.46 trillion (up 17% YoY), and $11.55 adjusted EPS (beating estimates of $11.30). Digital assets led the charge: iShares ETFs and digital asset ETPs pulled in $17 billion, with Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs now holding $93 billion and $17 billion, respectively.
What they need is a platform capable of managing complex, multi-jurisdictional issuance, sophisticated lifecycle management, strict compliance enforcement, and transfer agency functions at unprecedented scale. Yet, the current secure, scalable, and interoperable system built on Ethereum, Solana, and Wormhole remains little more than an experimental proof of concept. Internalising these functions ensures consistency, proprietary optimisation, and maximum security.
Why It Matters
Vertical integration at scale: BlackRock initially relied on specialized partners like Securitize for BUIDL’s issuance. Now it’s internalizing the stack. The move signals BlackRock intends to weave tokenization, issuance, and compliance directly into Aladdin, its flagship risk management and trading platform serving $13.4T in AUM.
Proof point: Last week, BlackRock integrated Talos’s order and execution management system into Aladdin, enabling direct crypto trading with algorithmic execution, smart order routing, and OTC dealer access. First-week volume: $1 billion.
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