BlackRock CEO Larry Fink: We're at the beginning of the tokenization of all assets

course, 200 billion in new client money or more than that actually coming in. Joining us

now exclusively here at post nine is the company's chairman and CEO, Larry Fink. Larry,

good to have you here. Thank

you for being here.

>> Good to see you, David.

>> And Jim. We'll we'll

probably ask some questions as well. No doubt about that. I

well. No doubt about that. I

guess. You know, it seems as though things are working on all fronts for you. Is this as good as it can get, Larry?

>> Well, it is gratifying. I

mean, what what really identified us in the in the third quarter, the breadth of where we grew. It wasn't just one business area. It was from

cash to our systematic equity, our AI based equity team that grew 30 billion over the course of the year, 10 billion in the quarter. Crypto, our digital

quarter. Crypto, our digital asset platform, our private markets platform, our investment technology grew as fast as they have in many, many

quarters now and then. You know,

just across the board ETFs record quarter. So it was not

record quarter. So it was not just one product area. It was

not just one region. It was a completeness. And I think it

completeness. And I think it comes down to the whole portfolio. The entirety of a

portfolio. The entirety of a conversation. You know, when we

conversation. You know, when we bought BGI in 20, in 2009, no one thought you could marry passive and active. Well, not

only we did that, we transformed how portfolio is being engaged. And now with

being engaged. And now with passive active public private and then an overlay investment technology and now digital. We're the firm that

digital. We're the firm that more and more people are going to worldwide.

>> What do you mean by digital?

>> You know, I do believe we're just at the beginning of the tokenization of all assets, from real estate to equities.

>> To bonds across the board.

>> There's very loud.

>> Very loud.

>> But it's good. Capital is at work. You like that? I love.

work. You like that? I love.

>> Capital at work. But there's

$4.1 trillion of money in Citi globally in digital wallets. A

lot of that money is outside the United States. If we could tokenize an ETF, you know, digitize that ETF, we could have investors who are just

beginning to, you know, invest in markets through, let's say, crypto. They're investing in it.

crypto. They're investing in it.

But now we could get them into the more traditional long term retirement products. So we look

retirement products. So we look at that as the next wave of opportunity for Blackrock over the next tens of years. As we

start focusing, moving away from traditional financial assets by putting them in a digital manner and then having people stay in that digital

ecosystem, they can have their cash and we have the largest cash money market fund that's tokenized, called Biddle. You

know, our our Bitcoin Ebit is now over $100 billion.

>> You know, so it's not that long ago.

>> Two years ago. Zero.

>> Yeah. So well, you weren't always a huge proponent of crypto as.

>> We know.

>> I love it now.

>> But I grow and learn.

>> I heard you say that on 60 minutes.

>> I did say that.

>> Jim.

>> Yeah, Larry, you know, I wrote how to make money in any market a lot because of our talks. Yes, a lot because of

talks. Yes, a lot because of what you did. And I dedicate a lot of it to you because I say that people don't know how to invest. People feel that their

invest. People feel that their parents are going to be richer than they ever were. Do you

feel that your your offerings, if people were to embrace them and work at a company that that had this kind of change, this world where younger people spend more money on polymarket betting about whether some, you

know, on some political event when if they go with what you have, they might be able to, through savings, be better be wealthier than their parents.

>> So a great statistic if you put money to work on January 1st, 2000 and a year later you had the financial, you had the.com crisis. 6 or 7 years

the.com crisis. 6 or 7 years later, as a financial crisis, you had the Covid crisis. You

still would have made 8% compounded over that entire 25 years versus earning 1%. It is

so compelling to be in the market. And this is the this is

market. And this is the this is the story. It's not about if

the story. It's not about if our market's going up or down, is there a bubble in crypto or is there a bubble in in technology? It's about being in

technology? It's about being in the market throughout the cycle.

Even if you put money in the United States in the year 1900 and then you had the Great Recession, you had, you know, the depression, you had all these things you would earn

over 9%, over 125 years. So I'm

not here to tell anybody when the what if the markets are going to go up or down, but overall long horizon and every individual who's thinking about it should be focusing on these opportunities. And I'm

opportunities. And I'm absolutely thrilled to see more and more young people investing in equities, not just Polycom.

They're investing in equities.

And if they can now translate that to from a just a trading and flipping account into a long term investment strategy and be an owner of those over this over long horizons, over

your lifetime, you're going to do really well. And another

interesting point. I think I've said this before, but over a 30 year cycle, if you earned an extra half a percent over 30 years, a half a percent, your

retirement pool of money is up 15% more, just a half a percent.

So the virtue of compounding over 30 years, there's nothing more important. And Jim, you

more important. And Jim, you write about this all the time.

This is what it takes. It's

about being in the market, being focused on this over a long horizon. And the young

long horizon. And the young people who are worried they're not going to have much to worry about. America still

about. America still