In a clear shift in the digital assets landscape, the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, has indicated stronger consensus with public blockchain networks, particularly Ethereum – eth usd, on permissible alternatives. This key insight emerged during the conference “Beyond Bitcoin ETFs – What’s Next in the Institutional Roadmap?” At Coinbase’s State of Crypto 2024 Summit on Thursday.
BlackRock doubles down on Ethereum
Samara Cohen, BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer for ETF and Index Investments, conveyed a critical stance on the development of blockchain technology in financial markets. “A few years ago, we thought that permissioned private blockchains would lead us,” Cohen said. “We now realize that public blockchains are better for the ecosystem.”
Her remarks at the summit reflect a broader consensus quietly forming among traditional market participants who favor open source platforms like Ethereum to avoid liquidity fragmentation and ensure broader, more efficient market participation.
BlackRock, Director of IT ETF and Index Investing @samarayebcohen He said today at a Coinbase event that permissioned blockchains have lost ground, and that traditional market participants are rallying around open source. #Ethereum To encode so as not to fragment the liquidity 👍
– Matthew Siegel, Recovering CFA (@matthew_sigel) June 13, 2024
This pivot is in line with BlackRock’s recent initiative, having launched its first tokenization project on the Ethereum blockchain in March. In collaboration with Securitize, a US-based company, BlackRock has issued a token for its “Institutional Digital Liquidity” fund. The move brought an initial liquidity of $100 million, denominated in USD (USDC), to the platform. The fund invests primarily in cash, short-term debt securities, and U.S. Treasuries, using the Ethereum infrastructure to facilitate its operations.
Hunter Horsley, CEO of Bitwise, also confirmed BlackRock’s shift toward public blockchains. Speaking separately, Horsley Highlight The final conclusion to the long-running debate between the merits of permissioned and non-permissioned blockchains, emphasizing that “this was a debate. Quietly, the will was settled: permissionless.
Anthony Sassano, renowned angel investor, advisor and founder of The Daily Gwei Comment: “Read this and take it seriously. An executive at BlackRock (the world’s largest asset manager) is telling you that the future is public blockchains — specifically, that the future is Ethereum! If that doesn’t make you optimistic, nothing will.”
The panel discussions also included insights from other financial leaders such as Sandy Cowell, Senior Vice President at Franklin Templeton, and Alicia Haas, CFO of Coinbase. The panel theme emphasized 2024 as a pivotal year for deeper integration between cryptocurrencies and traditional financial (TradFi) sectors through tools such as ETFs and asset tokenization.
The consensus among these financial leaders underscores an important trend: the integration of blockchain technology into mainstream financial practices is not only increasing, but it is doing so through platforms that provide transparency, accessibility, and broad governance. The preference for Ethereum over permissioned blockchains by institutions like BlackRock represents a noteworthy development.
At press time, Ethereum was trading at $3,522.
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