BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Compares Tokenization’s Impact to the Early Days of the Internet

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein are doubling down on tokenization, arguing that the technology is shaping up to become the most significant upgrade to global market infrastructure since the introduction of electronic messaging systems like SWIFT nearly half a century ago. 

In a joint column published Monday in The Economist and shared on BlackRock’s website, the executives framed tokenization as a once-in-a-generation shift—comparable to the early internet’s emergence—capable of reengineering how assets are issued, traded, and owned.

“Ledgers haven’t been this exciting since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping,” the pair wrote, underscoring just how significant they believe the transition to digital records will be.

A Technological Arc From Paper Certificates to Digital Assets

To illustrate the scale of change, Fink traced the evolution of market plumbing from the 1970s to today. 

During his early career, trades were placed by telephone and confirmed through courier-delivered paper certificates—manual processes that carried enormous friction and risk. 

That reality began to shift in 1977 with SWIFT, which standardized electronic communications and slashed settlement timelines from days to minutes. Now, with high-frequency trading and global connectivity, transactions can occur in milliseconds.

Also read: SWIFT vs Modern Payments: Why Blockchain Solutions Are Taking Over

Blockchain, introduced by Satoshi Nakamoto in 2009 with Bitcoin, offered the next breakthrough: a shared, immutable digital ledger that records transactions without relying on an intermediary. 

According to Fink and Goldstein, that invention laid the groundwork for tokenization, enabling virtually any asset—equities, bonds, currencies, real estate, even infrastructure—to be represented as a digital token on a verifiable ledger.

“At first it was hard for the financial world — including us — to see the big idea,” they admitted. Tokenization obscured by speculative crypto mania looked like another passing bubble. But traditional finance has since “seen what was hiding beneath the hype: tokenization can greatly expand the world of investable assets beyond the listed stocks and bonds that dominate markets today.”

BlackRock’s Tokenization Footprint Is Already Expanding

BlackRock has been steadily building toward that vision. 

Its BUIDL tokenized U.S. money market fund—launched in March 2024—has already surpassed $2 billion in value on public blockchain rails. It represents one of the largest real-world asset (RWA) tokenization projects to date.

BlackRock’s BUIDL value (Source: RWA.xyz)

The firm’s spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs have also cemented its position as a dominant force in digital assets, drawing $62.6 billion and $13.2 billion in cumulative net inflows respectively. The combination of public-market crypto products and on-chain experiments like BUIDL signal that BlackRock is pushing deeper into digital-asset infrastructure.

Instant Settlement and Digitized Private Markets

In their column, Fink and Goldstein outlined two key advantages of tokenization: standardized instant settlement and the replacement of paper-heavy private-market workflows with code.

By enabling trades to settle instantly across global markets rather than on varying schedules, tokenization could meaningfully reduce counterparty risk—one of the biggest structural vulnerabilities in today’s system. It could also overhaul private-market operations, where processes still hinge on PDFs, wet signatures, and protracted reconciliation.

Tokenization, they said, can turn traditionally large, illiquid assets like real estate or infrastructure into fractional, easily tradable units. The result: more liquidity, lower transaction costs, and greater access for both institutions and individuals.

The trend is already materializing. Tokens representing real-world assets have surged roughly 300% in the past 20 months, according to data cited by the executives.

Developing Markets Lead, but the U.S. Holds Key Advantages

Fink noted that about 75% of early tokenization adoption is occurring in developing countries, where limited banking access makes digital financial rails particularly appealing. Meanwhile, the U.S. and Europe—architects of the modern financial system—risk falling behind in on-chain asset innovation.

Still, many of the firms best positioned to lead the tokenized future, from stablecoin issuers to fintechs, are based in the United States. That head start, Fink warned, is not guaranteed. Just as the internet’s early days were marked by rapid, unpredictable leaps—Amazon had sold only $16 million in books in 1996 and several of the “Magnificent Seven” tech giants didn’t yet exist—tokenization is likely to evolve faster than expected.

Also read: BlackRock CEO Larry Fink Says We’re Entering the Tokenized Age of Finance

“We are at a moment similar to the internet in 1996,” Fink said, predicting enormous growth “over the coming decades.”

Tokenization A Bridge, Not a Replacement

Despite the enthusiasm, Fink and Goldstein said tokenization won’t replace the traditional financial system anytime soon. Instead, they framed it as a bridge—one being built simultaneously from both sides.

On one side are established financial institutions modernizing legacy infrastructure. On the other are digital-first firms such as stablecoin issuers, blockchain developers, and crypto-native fintechs. “The two aren’t competing so much as learning to interoperate,” Fink wrote.

Ultimately, the executives envision a world in which investors manage all asset types—stocks, bonds, cash, real estate, and crypto—through a unified digital wallet.

Regulation Must Keep Pace

For tokenization to scale safely, Fink and Goldstein urged policymakers to update existing frameworks rather than build new ones from scratch. A tokenized bond is still a bond, they stressed, meaning buyer protection, counterparty-risk standards, and digital-identity systems must evolve alongside new infrastructure.

Tokenization can make markets more inclusive, they concluded—but only if the industry “moves faster and moves safely.”

With BlackRock now one of the most influential champions of tokenization, the world’s largest asset manager is signaling that on-chain markets are no longer a theoretical future—they are the next major battleground for global finance.