This article is reprinted with authorization from Automatic Insight Beating, author: Rhythm Editorial Department, copyright belongs to the original author.

One hundred billion dollars.

This is the milestone that BlackRock's Bitcoin spot ETF (iShares Bitcoin Trust, IBIT) officially reached on October 14, 2025. It became the fastest ETF in history to surpass the $100 billion mark, achieving this feat five times quicker than the previous record holder. From zero to one hundred billion, IBIT took less than two years—specifically, 21 months.

On the same day, BlackRock's stock price hit a historic high of $1,184, with a market capitalization exceeding $180 billion. Over the past year, its stock price has risen by 17%, and in the past six months, it has surged by 31%.

Behind these numbers lies a more intriguing story.

The captain of this fund, Larry Fink, is the CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset management company, managing over $13 trillion in assets. He is known as "the most powerful man on Wall Street," and his words can shake a company's stock price or rewrite industry standards.

However, just a few years ago, in October 2017, Fink sat in a CNBC studio and dismissed Bitcoin as a "money laundering index." He stated that Bitcoin's price merely reflected how much illicit money existed in the world and compared Bitcoin to the 17th-century tulip bubble, a speculative game destined to collapse.

Eight years later, in his annual letter to shareholders, Fink wrote, "If the credibility of the dollar continues to erode, Bitcoin could become a new reserve asset."

On October 13, 2025, his statements went further; in an interview with CBS, he candidly stated that the role of cryptocurrency is the same as that of gold, both serving as tools for value storage.

From a money laundering index to a reserve asset, from a tulip bubble to digital gold.

This is not a simple correction of viewpoint but a migration of power, a capital acquisition, an old world devouring a new one. And Fink is the protagonist of this "metamorphosis."

Around 2018, Wall Street's consensus was "stay away from Bitcoin."

Fink's attitude was the same. "Our clients are not interested," he said nonchalantly in a July interview that year. Behind that indifference was the arrogance and unease of old-school finance towards the unknown world. They couldn't understand it and were too lazy to try.

In their view, Bitcoin had neither national credit nor collateral assets, and its price was like a roller coaster. Most importantly, it was born in a lawless land that they could not regulate or dominate.

This hostility has its origins.

By the end of 2017, Bitcoin's price skyrocketed from less than $1,000 at the beginning of the year to nearly $20,000. The ICO bubble was inflating wildly, with various oddly named tokens raising tens of millions of dollars based on a white paper. That year, ICO financing exceeded $6 billion, more than all traditional VC investments in blockchain combined.

For Fink, who had been navigating the traditional financial world for decades, all of this felt too familiar. He had experienced the internet bubble of 2000 and endured the subprime mortgage crisis of 2008. He knew that when market participants began to believe "this time is different," it often marked the eve of a bubble's collapse.

Sure enough, in January 2018, Bitcoin's price began to plummet. By the end of the year, it had evaporated 80% of its market value. Thousands of ICO projects went to zero, and countless retail investors lost everything. That round of collapse seemed to validate Fink's judgment.

So when he uttered the term "money laundering index" in October 2017, it was not a casual sarcasm; he genuinely believed that Bitcoin's rise was merely a reflection of the shadowy world of quantitative finance, reducing Bitcoin to a measure of the scale of global illicit funds.

This was a complete denial; in his logic, there was no need to even discuss the value of such an asset.

Fink was not fighting alone. Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, was his staunchest ally in the old world.

Dimon's rhetoric was even more intense than Fink's. In September 2017, he directly called Bitcoin a "fraud" at a forum and even threatened to "immediately fire" any employee trading Bitcoin.

Six years later, at a congressional hearing in late 2023, his stance remained unchanged: "If I were the government, I would strictly prohibit it." In his view, the only use of Bitcoin was for "criminals, drug dealers, money laundering, and tax evasion."

Fink and Dimon, one managing the world's largest asset management company and the other leading America's largest bank, together built the first line of defense of traditional finance against the crypto world. Their logic was simple: anything that could not be regulated or understood was a risk. Their job was to tame that risk.

But beneath that firm logic lay a deeper anxiety.

In the traditional financial world, power comes from control over information, capital, and regulation. BlackRock's foundation is built on this control. Its core system, "Aladdin," is a massive financial hub capable of processing vast amounts of data, assessing risks, and adjusting portfolios. This system manages over $20 trillion in global assets, and its operation relies on a monopoly over market information.

Bitcoin, however, precisely disrupts these three pillars. It attempts to establish a financial system that requires no intermediaries, no permissions, and no trust. In this system, BlackRock's "Aladdin" has no role, and Fink's authority cannot be exercised.

For Fink and others like him, this is not only a technical threat but also a power affront.

But the instinct of power is never to maintain the status quo but to adapt. When new centers of power emerge, truly smart people do not resist; they infiltrate.

Fink would soon come to understand this.

The signal of change first emerged from within BlackRock. In November 2020, BlackRock's Chief Investment Officer of Fixed Income, Rick Rieder, hinted on a CNBC program that cryptocurrencies "will exist for the long term" and may even "replace gold." This was an important indicator. While the big boss was still observing, his subordinates were already testing the waters in public.

A month later, Fink himself finally relented.

In a December 2020 online event, he acknowledged for the first time that Bitcoin "could evolve into a global market."

Although he still left a "could" in his statement, for Fink, this was already a rare concession. He began to adopt a different posture, no longer attacking but emphasizing "we are observing" and "we are learning."

This verbal caution was often accompanied by a quiet strategic layout.

BlackRock began to recruit talent.

As early as 2019, they hired Robby Michnik, an industry veteran who had served as an executive at the crypto company Ripple. Later, he became the head of BlackRock's digital asset division. This was an important piece; they needed someone who truly understood the field to guide them in navigating the rules of this new world without alarming the outside.

Next came investments. In April 2022, BlackRock participated in a $400 million financing round for Circle, the issuer of the stablecoin USDC. This was not just a financial investment; BlackRock also became the primary manager of Circle's substantial cash reserves. At that time, Circle's reserves exceeded $40 billion, a significant portion of which was entrusted to BlackRock. By managing the stablecoin's funds, they extended a foot into the core of the crypto world.

Then came partnerships. In August of the same year, BlackRock announced a historic collaboration with Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the U.S. Coinbase's services would be integrated into BlackRock's proud "Aladdin" system. This system is one of Wall Street's largest financial hubs. This means that BlackRock's institutional clients can directly access crypto assets through a familiar interface.

These actions may seem scattered, but when connected, they form a clear strategic map. BlackRock is laying down a highway from traditional finance to the crypto world.

Behind these actions lies a key insight.

The true value of cryptocurrency does not lie in how high it can rise but in the fact that it has created an entirely new asset class. And every new asset class will give birth to new management fees, new commissions, and new power entry points.

BlackRock's business model is extremely simple: manage assets and extract fees. The more assets, the higher the income.

And cryptocurrency is the fastest-growing asset class of the past decade. Even if Fink himself still harbors doubts about Bitcoin, he cannot ignore the scale of this market. By 2022, the global cryptocurrency market cap had exceeded $2 trillion, equivalent to the entire GDP of Russia.

More critically, the participants in this market are changing.

Before 2020, cryptocurrency was a playground for retail investors and geeks. By 2021, Tesla bought $1.5 billion in Bitcoin, MicroStrategy included it in its corporate reserves, and Grayscale's Bitcoin trust surpassed $40 billion, marking the entry of institutional investors.

Fink sees clearly that when institutional investors enter a new market, what they need is not decentralized wallets, not complex private key management; they need familiar interfaces, regulatory frameworks, and custodial security.

And that is precisely BlackRock's business.

When all of this was ready, Fink began to frequently mention "client demand" in public. "We are seeing increasing interest from clients in cryptocurrencies," he said in April 2022. This became a perfect shield.

It's not that I want to change; it's that my clients want to change.

This old fox of Wall Street cleverly packaged a proactive strategic shift as a passive market response.

This narrative is clever. It protects Fink's personal reputation and leaves room for BlackRock's subsequent actions. If Bitcoin continues to rise, BlackRock can ride the wave to meet the market; if Bitcoin crashes, it won't be BlackRock's fault—they are merely providing a tool, and the risk is borne by the investors themselves.

But behind this seemingly passive narrative, BlackRock is actively shaping the market. They are making it easier for institutional clients to access crypto assets through their partnership with Coinbase. They are embedding themselves in the blood circulation system of the crypto world by investing in Circle. They are gaining understanding and voice in the new world by hiring industry experts like Michnik.

On June 15, 2023, BlackRock submitted an application for a spot Bitcoin ETF to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. When the news broke, the market was shaken. Bitcoin's price rose over 5% in a single day.

This was described as a "nuclear-level" application. The reason is simple: it is BlackRock.

BlackRock is not one of those small companies that have queued for ten years in front of the SEC, repeatedly failing. Among the hundreds of ETF applications submitted by BlackRock, only one has been rejected. Its success rate is nearly 100%.

When the giant steps in, the rules of the game change.

Over the past decade, the SEC has rejected more than twenty similar applications. Since the first knock on the door in 2013, this door has remained firmly shut. Its chairman, Gary Gensler, is himself a crypto skeptic. He is willing to approve futures ETFs but repeatedly blocks spot ETFs, citing the old adage: the risk of market manipulation and the need to protect investors.

But this time, the pressure on the SEC is unprecedented.

On one hand, a court recently ruled in August 2023 that the SEC's rejection of Grayscale's application was "arbitrary and capricious." The judge questioned the SEC, asking why it allowed futures ETFs but rejected spot ones. Where is the logic?

The scales of justice are beginning to tip to the other side.

On the other hand, BlackRock stands at the door. Saying "no" to a giant managing $10 trillion becomes extraordinarily costly politically.

BlackRock is not here to take chances; in their application, they wrote in great detail. They chose Coinbase as the custodian, a company listed on NASDAQ and subject to strict regulation. They also included a complete set of market monitoring mechanisms to mitigate the SEC's greatest concern about manipulation risks. Every detail is aimed at dismantling the regulatory defenses.

Finally, on January 10, 2024, the SEC approved the spot Bitcoin ETF applications of eleven companies in one go, with BlackRock among them.

Chairman Gensler still expressed reluctance in his statement. He emphasized that Bitcoin is "highly speculative, volatile, and full of risks," even adding, "We have not approved or endorsed Bitcoin."

But this no longer matters; once the floodgates are opened, the deluge will come rushing in.

Fink no longer talks about "money laundering" but instead shifts to discussing "democratization." In interviews after the ETF approval, he stated that this makes investing in Bitcoin safer, cheaper, and easier. He began referring to Bitcoin as "digital gold," a tool to combat geopolitical risks in an uncertain world. He even invoked macroeconomic terminology, discussing currency devaluation, inflation, and sovereign debt crises as part of his description of Bitcoin's value.

In this new narrative, the disdain of five years ago has completely vanished. He has found a reason that is dignified to the point of being nearly perfect for Wall Street's entry into the crypto world.

On January 11, 2024, IBIT officially launched and began trading. On its first day, the inflow of funds exceeded one billion dollars. By the end of 2024, its asset size had surpassed fifty billion dollars. By October 14, 2025, this figure officially broke one hundred billion dollars.

Historically, it usually takes an ETF five to ten years to reach a scale of fifty billion. IBIT achieved this in less than a year. It shattered all records, becoming the fastest-growing ETF in financial history.

It also became BlackRock's most profitable product, generating annual revenue exceeding $240 million, surpassing those star funds that have been operating for over a decade.

It is worth noting that BlackRock manages over $10 trillion in assets and has hundreds of ETFs. Yet the most profitable one is this Bitcoin fund, which has been established for less than two years.

By 2025, IBIT alone accounted for 57.5% of the U.S. spot Bitcoin ETF market. Eleven companies were approved simultaneously, but there was only one ultimate winner. Through it, BlackRock held 800,000 Bitcoins, approximately 4% of the global circulation.

Among the eleven approved companies were established players like Fidelity, Grayscale, which has been deeply involved in crypto for years, and Bitwise, which markets itself on low fees. They all have their own audiences, but the funds ultimately flowed to BlackRock. The reason is simple: trust.

For institutional investors, purchasing a Bitcoin ETF has never been merely an investment choice; it is a compliance choice, a reputational choice. When a pension fund's investment committee discusses whether to allocate to Bitcoin, the first question they face is not "Will Bitcoin go up?" but "How do we explain it if it crashes?"

BlackRock's name is the answer to that question. When you choose BlackRock, it's like signing a liability waiver. Even if the market crashes, there will always be someone to bear part of the responsibility for you, at least in terms of public opinion.

That old saying circulating in the financial world holds true again: "No one gets fired for choosing IBM." In the game of Bitcoin ETFs, BlackRock is IBM.

In 2025, Fink's position became increasingly clear. In his April shareholder letter, he juxtaposed Bitcoin with an impending dollar crisis, something that would have been unimaginable a few years ago.

He warned that when a country's debt-to-GDP ratio rises above 120% (as was the case for the U.S. at the time), the credibility of its currency becomes precarious. According to data from September 2025, the total U.S. federal debt had reached $37.3 trillion, with a debt-to-GDP ratio exceeding 119%.

Fink's subtext is clear and powerful: if the credibility of the dollar continues to erode in this way, the world will begin to seek alternatives, and Bitcoin, this digital gold he once dismissed, is an option that cannot be ignored.

When Fink says this, it carries a weight that is entirely different. He is not a fervent believer in cryptocurrency; he is the CEO of the world's largest asset management company. His words represent the mainstream direction of Wall Street.

By October 2025, Fink's views became even clearer and more resolute.

In an interview with CBS on October 13, he completely set aside all past reservations, bluntly comparing Bitcoin to the oldest means of value storage in human history. "The role of cryptocurrency is the same as that of gold," he said, "it is an alternative." He admitted his past mistakes, stating, "The market teaches you that you must constantly re-examine your assumptions."

The next day, at BlackRock's third-quarter earnings call, Fink displayed even greater ambition. He was no longer content with merely positioning Bitcoin as an investable asset; he aimed to move the entire underlying structure of Wall Street onto the blockchain.

He said, "We are just beginning to tokenize all assets, from real estate to stocks to bonds." He predicted that the digital asset market would "significantly grow" from its current $4.5 trillion.

This is no longer a simple "acquisition" but a complete "absorption." Fink's goal has shifted from providing a compliant channel for investing in Bitcoin to using blockchain technology to reshape the entire operation of the financial market. The ETF is just a beginning, an entry point for bringing trillions of traditional capital into the new world. Tokenization of everything is the endgame he envisions.

Almost simultaneously with Fink's remarks, his old rival Dimon finally bowed to reality.

In May 2025, JPMorgan announced it would allow clients to purchase Bitcoin. But when Dimon made the announcement, there was a hint of bitterness on his face; he said, "I don't think you should smoke, but I defend your right to smoke, and now I also defend your right to buy Bitcoin, go ahead."

He still insists that Bitcoin has no value and emphasizes its risks, but he also acknowledges that clients have the right to choose.

One is shaping reality, while the other is conforming to it. Fink, with strategy and enthusiasm, opened the door to the new world, while Dimon stood outside, describing an order he no longer understands with old language.

The divergence in attitudes between Fink and Dimon marks a transfer of power within Wall Street. In this new land of crypto, Fink has transformed from a cautious observer into a standard-bearer wielding a scepter. Dimon, however, remains on the edge of the old world, reluctantly watching it all unfold.

So, what exactly caused Fink's transformation?

He did not suddenly realize Satoshi Nakamoto's ideal of decentralization; rather, he performed a simple business calculation.

When a trillion-dollar market demand is presented before you, you cannot pretend not to see it. When a product can generate hundreds of millions in profit, you cannot refuse it. When the narrative of the global macroeconomy provides you with a perfect entry point, you must seize it.

Most importantly, when a new, rapidly growing center of power emerges, the smartest guardians of the old order will choose to embrace or even absorb it to ensure they remain kings in the new world.

Bitcoin was born out of a reflection on the 2008 financial crisis. Satoshi wrote in the genesis block: "The Chancellor on the brink of the second bailout for banks." This is both a declaration and an indictment. It is a rebellion against the world represented by Fink.

More than a decade later, the greatest spoils of this rebellion are being claimed by the largest symbol of power in that world.

The 800,000 Bitcoins held by BlackRock are not stored in some decentralized wallet but in Coinbase's custody system. Investors purchasing IBIT do not truly own Bitcoin; they possess a certificate issued by BlackRock. This certificate states that they have the right to share in the price fluctuations of these Bitcoins.

Satoshi envisioned a peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Today, it has become an exhibition behind thick glass.

In Bitcoin's white paper, Satoshi wrote, "What we need is an electronic payment system based on cryptographic proof rather than trust." Yet the operation of IBIT is precisely built on trust; you trust that BlackRock will not misappropriate assets, trust that Coinbase will not be hacked, and trust that the SEC's regulation remains effective.

The birth of Bitcoin was to eliminate reliance on third parties; yet its mainstreaming relies on re-establishing that trust.

Perhaps this is the price of its entry into the mainstream. It must be tamed, packaged, and fitted into the framework of traditional finance to be accepted by pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, and ordinary investors. And Fink is that tamer.

Now, this tamer's goals have advanced further; he aims not only to tame Bitcoin as an asset but also to tame the issuance, trading, and clearing methods of all assets through "tokenization," bringing the entire financial system into a framework he is familiar with and controls.

Historically, every time a new technology becomes mainstream, it is accompanied by a compromise of its original ideals. During the electricity revolution, people thought every household would have its own generator; in the end, we ended up with a vast power grid. When the internet was born, it was a decentralized, free, and open network; today, it is tightly controlled by a few giants.

Will Bitcoin follow the same path?

When traditional financial giants like BlackRock, Fidelity, and JPMorgan control most of Bitcoin's circulation, what remains of decentralization? When the primary way to purchase Bitcoin is through regulated ETFs rather than holding private keys, how much meaning does the term "Bankless" retain?

Is this a victory for Bitcoin, or a victory for Wall Street?

Perhaps both, or perhaps neither.

The price of Bitcoin may continue to rise, its market cap may surpass that of gold, and it may indeed become some form of reserve asset. But in the process, it is also losing its original soul. It has transformed from a tool for resisting the system into a part of the system itself.

Fink's "metamorphosis" reveals an ancient law. In the transition between the old and new worlds, the true winners are never the earliest believers or the most stubborn traditionalists, but those who can, at the right moment, use the resources of the old world to reap the fruits of the new world.

They do not need to believe; they only need to act. And when they act, the world will change according to their will.

Related: Tom Lee: Ethereum (ETH) is expected to surpass Bitcoin (BTC) in the same way Wall Street disrupted gold.

Original article: “The $100 Billion Transformation of Wall Street's Mastermind”

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