It was another of those typical crypto days when the angry outside world did not seem to exist and all the news was interpreted positively. Granted, there was also positive news with the letter to BlackRock shareholders and additionally Goldman Sachs using the words cryptocurrencies and Metaverse on its homepage. But the reaction of the market, especially the crypto media, was greatly exaggerated.
BlackRock is the largest fund manager in the world, managing nearly $10 trillion, but that sounds like a lot less than when you write it out: 10 trillion is 10,000,000,000,000 and then I may be a zero off. But it's almost a thousand times a billion. More than 9 million times a million. In short, they plus nicely.
Because what exactly did Blackrock chairman Larry Fink actually write in his letter to shareholders? Search for the words "crypto" or "blockchain" and the result is zero twice, versus 24 times "Russia" and 9 times "Ukraine. In a document with more than 30 paragraphs, as many as one was about digital currencies. The passage that made crypto Twitter go wild was:
"As we see increasing interest from our clients, BlackRock is studying digital currencies, stablecoins and the underlying technologies to understand how they can help us serve our clients."
Joh.
It would be heavenly if BlackRock did not keep an eye on a fast-growing 2 trillion market, the size of the entire crypto market. It's less than 20% of what BlackRock manages, of course, but enough to keep an eager eye on. Probably not to take a position yourself, but to try to grab a piece of all the trades.
By the way, I had to shed a tear at this sentence:
"Digital currencies can also help reduce the cost of cross-border payments, such as when foreign workers send income back to their families."
Because if BlackRock cares about anything, it's the fate of the guest worker migrant worker.
As if it were agreed work, the fringe truffle sauce of investment banks, Goldman Sachs, also came up with this sentence on its homepage:
Discover the megatrends reshaping economies, from cryptocurrencies to the metaverse.
Those who click through are greeted with:
The Metaverse & Web 3.0
It feels like your old physics teacher suddenly starts breakdancing in the middle of class. I searched for the words "NFT" and "Bored Ape," but to no avail. They are not that crypto woke at Goldman Sachs.
As if the party couldn't end, Cointelegraph saw on Twitter that Eric Balchunas, Bloomberg analyst, predicted that the SEC could finally approve Bitcoin ETFs in 2023. Only that would require a change in the definition of the term "exchange.
"Once crypto exchanges are compliant, the SEC's main reason for rejecting spot Bitcoin ETFs would no longer be valid, likely paving the way for approval," analysts said.
That is a valid argument, but that change in definition has such a large impact that it is not a certainty that it will be adopted. Bloomberg knows that too, hence the wonderful "could" in their forecast. Like a weatherman saying, "tomorrow it could rain. That does require a change in the cloud cover first.'
Meanwhile, less florid crypto news, such as the recurring discussion about the energy required by Bitcoin mining (with wonderful photos) and the possible change in law in the European Union that could ban Proof of Work, were completely overlooked. Banning Proof of Work, by the way, would be absurd; instead, more nuanced discussion on the subject is needed. Like on anything related to crypto, blockchain and NFTs.
