Fidelity And Now BlackRock Go Into Cryptos?

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Larry Fink, chairman and chief executive officer at BlackRock, talks about the potential impact of a true global tariff war on markets and the U.S. economy. He speaks with Bloomberg’s Erik Schatzker on “Bloomberg Surveillance.” (Source: Bloomberg)

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Q2 hedge fund letters, conference, scoops etc

BlackRock's Larry Fink Sees U.S. Slowdown, 10-15% Market Drop In Tariff War

Transcript

But what about your attitude. How would you describe your state of certainty. I think these are important questions to be answered. And what do you feel more uncertain than you felt at any other time in the past 42 years. No I mean but I do I feel in the last five years to I believe this is a more uncertain period of time. Yes I do look at the question I'm raising is this 1994 when that when the when the markets were very concerned about growth. Actually the Federal Reserve you remarried. You know these when they should have been probably tightening and so they got it wrong too. And then the market reasserted itself and we had a five year bull market. We may be in that position. The market may be wrong right now in that GDP will continue to grow. The trade conversation is not that not that difficult for international commerce and a share repurchase will continue if that's the case. We'll wake up in a year from now and the markets are going to be on the other side. Well if we have a true tariff wars we'll see the markets down 10 to 15 percent. So I do but you wouldn't call this a tariff war. We haven't so we'll see what happens in the next 200 billion dollar proposal that the U.S. government has done with China between now and the end of August. So right now it's talk let's see if there is if there is a resolution on that.

Why aren't tariffs and 50 billion dollars of Chinese goods and tariffs on steel and aluminum imports and tariffs that are being imposed on the Europeans with retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods. Why doesn't that constitute a trade war. Well it is a minor trade war but it has very little impact on global GDP. It's just too small yet. But symbolically it is having an impact it's having an impact on investor sentiment and that's what we're seeing right now we're seeing investors pausing until there's greater certainty.

 

Today, Chief Executive Larry Fink announced that BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager with $6.3 trillion in assets, has assembled a working group to investigate how to “take advantage” of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology, including potentially investing in cryptocurrency futures.

Please see below expert commentary on the implications of such a move from Rohit Kulkarni, Manager Director of Private Investment Research at SharesPost, a leading provider of private company liquidity solutions and private capital markets research:

“Given the pressure fund managers face to reduce costs and increase returns, and given the potential of blockchain to do just this in asset management, it is not a surprise that large fund managers are moving into blockchain. It is rather a validation of the blockchain technology.”

“With Fidelity forming a crypto fund and exploring the creation of a digital asset exchange, and now with BlackRock  looking into creating crypto futures and other derivative products, it is clear that big money managers are gathering tools and infrastructure ahead of this impending tsunami.”

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