The world’s largest asset manager just threw its weight behind a vision that could reshape global finance. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink made his most explicit case yet for blockchain-based tokenization to move beyond experimental phases and into the core infrastructure of financial markets.
While Fink stopped short of naming a specific blockchain, his comments—combined with BlackRock’s existing digital asset strategy—point unmistakably toward Ethereum as the preferred foundation for this tokenized future. The implications for ETH, currently trading at $3,005, could be transformative as institutional adoption accelerates.
From Pilots to Plumbing: Fink’s Infrastructure Vision
Fink’s remarks carried the weight of operational necessity rather than crypto evangelism. “I think the movement towards tokenization, decimalization is necessary,” he declared, pointing to Brazil and India as unexpected leaders in currency digitization. His argument wasn’t rooted in blockchain ideology but in cold economic logic: shared rails mean lower costs, broader access, and enhanced security.
The BlackRock chief painted a picture of seamless capital flow across asset classes, where investors could move “from a tokenized money market fund to equities and bonds and back and forth” on unified infrastructure. This vision of interoperable settlement rails represents a fundamental shift from today’s fragmented financial system, where moving between asset classes involves multiple intermediaries and settlement periods.
The Corruption Angle: Standardization as Security
Perhaps Fink’s most provocative assertion centered on corruption reduction through blockchain standardization. “If we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption,” he argued, acknowledging the trade-off of increased dependency while emphasizing enhanced security and processing capabilities.
This framing immediately reignited the “which chain?” debate across crypto communities, with Ethereum supporters seizing on BlackRock’s existing blockchain footprint as evidence of the network’s institutional preference. The argument resonates particularly strongly given ongoing concerns about traditional financial system opacity and settlement risks.
BlackRock’s Ethereum Footprint Tells the Story
While Fink kept his blockchain preferences implicit, BlackRock’s actions speak volumes. The firm’s flagship crypto ETFs—the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA)—represent its most visible public market crypto exposure, with ETHA launching in 2024 as a direct bet on Ethereum’s institutional future.
More tellingly, BlackRock’s first tokenized fund, the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL), debuted on Ethereum via Securitize in March 2024. This choice of Ethereum as the original issuance network for one of the market’s most watched institutional real-world assets (RWAs) signals where BlackRock sees the future of tokenized finance.
The Research Data Points to Ethereum Dominance
BlackRock’s 2026 thematic outlook provides even clearer signals about the firm’s blockchain preferences. The research explicitly positions Ethereum as a potential “toll road” for tokenization, suggesting the network could collect fees as digitized assets scale across global markets.
The numbers support this thesis convincingly. According to BlackRock’s latest data, over 65% of tokenized assets currently exist on Ethereum, establishing the network’s dominance in the RWA sector that Fink sees as critical to future financial infrastructure. This market leadership creates powerful network effects that could solidify Ethereum’s position as institutions embrace tokenization.
Market Implications and Network Effects
The convergence around Ethereum as institutional infrastructure carries profound implications for the broader crypto ecosystem. As the world’s largest asset manager signals preference for a unified blockchain standard, other institutions face pressure to align with existing market leaders rather than fragment liquidity across competing networks.
This dynamic mirrors traditional financial markets, where standards emerge through adoption by the largest, most conservative players rather than through technical superiority alone. BlackRock’s implicit endorsement of Ethereum could accelerate this consolidation, particularly as stablecoin adoption—which BlackRock identifies as a key tokenization proxy—continues to concentrate on Ethereum-based rails.
Looking Forward: The Tokenization Timeline
Fink’s call to “move very rapidly” suggests urgency around tokenization adoption that extends beyond BlackRock’s own product timeline. With Brazil and India leading government-level digitization efforts and major asset managers beginning to standardize around common blockchain infrastructure, the next phase of crypto adoption may be driven more by institutional necessity than retail speculation.
For Ethereum, currently maintaining its position as the leading smart contract platform with ETH at $3,005, Fink’s implicit endorsement represents validation of its institutional viability. As tokenization moves from experimental pilot programs to core market infrastructure, Ethereum’s early lead in RWA deployment and stablecoin adoption positions it as the natural beneficiary of this institutional shift.