BlackRock CEO: Tokenization could have an impact on finance comparable to the early internet's impact on the information sector

On December 2nd (UTC+8), BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and COO Rob Goldstein stated that tokenization is becoming a transformative force in global markets, with a potential impact comparable to the early rise of the internet. On Monday, the two published an article in The Economist, which was simultaneously released on BlackRock's official website.

They believe that digital ledgers record asset ownership, which can improve efficiency, transparency, and accessibility, and promote the modernization of the financial system. They also wrote, "Since the invention of double-entry bookkeeping, ledgers have never been so exciting." The two executives see tokenization as the next stage of technological change.

Fink recalled that early in his career, in the 1970s, transactions were conducted by telephone, and settlement relied on paper vouchers delivered by courier. In 1977, the emergence of SWIFT introduced a standardized electronic messaging system between banks, which significantly shortened settlement times from days to minutes. Today, global transactions can even be completed in milliseconds.

In 2009, Satoshi Nakamoto first used blockchain technology for Bitcoin, introducing a shared digital ledger that records transactions without intermediaries, laying the foundation for tokenization and allowing various assets to be stored in a single, independently verifiable digital record. Fink and Goldstein also stated that initially, the financial community found it difficult to understand its significance because tokenization was intertwined with the seemingly speculative cryptocurrency craze.

However, in recent years, traditional finance has discovered that tokenization can greatly expand the range of investable assets, beyond listed stocks and bonds.

[PANews]