@daily_btc_lore | Daily Bitcoin History Threads

July 5, 2023 | 3 years ago today

Larry Fink Calls Bitcoin "Digital Gold": Six Years After Calling It an Index of Money LaunderingLarry Fink Calls Bitcoin "Digital Gold": Six Years After Calling It an Index of Money Laundering

(link to original spot: https://www.foxbusiness.com/video/6330640643112)

The 2017 DismissalThe 2017 Dismissal

On October 13, 2017, with Bitcoin trading around $5,800, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink appeared at an Institute of International Finance event and said: "Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world. That's all it is." He called it "an index for money laundering." The quote circulated widely and became one of the most-referenced institutional dismissals of Bitcoin on record.

The Forcing FunctionThe Forcing Function

On June 15, 2023, BlackRock filed a spot Bitcoin ETF application with the SEC. Before this moment, no spot Bitcoin ETF had ever been approved in the United States; more than a dozen applications from other firms had been rejected. BlackRock's SEC approval record going into the filing: 575 wins, 1 loss. The financial press immediately understood the implication: if BlackRock was applying, the calculus had changed.

The FlipThe Flip

Twenty days later, on July 5, 2023, Fink appeared on Fox Business's The Claman Countdown (foxbusiness.com/video/6330640643112) and delivered the reversal: "Bitcoin is an international asset. It's not based on any one currency." "The role of crypto is digitizing gold in many ways." The "index of money laundering" quote was now six years old and visibly wrong by its author's own account.

What FollowedWhat Followed

The SEC approved spot Bitcoin ETFs on January 11, 2024. BlackRock's IBIT reached $10 billion in assets under management in seven weeks, the fastest any ETF had ever done it. It hit $70 billion in 341 days, roughly five times faster than SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) took to reach the same milestone. As of 2026, IBIT holds roughly half of all US spot Bitcoin ETF assets.

Part of an ongoing series on Bitcoin history. This event falls on July 5, 2023.