BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink used his annual letter to shareholders to argue that digital assets and tokenization could help upgrade the financial system, even as he warned that the American economic model is leaving too many people behind.
In the letter, Fink said the current system has given most of its profits to people who already own assets, while many workers have been excluded from market growth. He linked that imbalance to a broader problem in the United States, where growing inequality, high public debt and weak participation in capital markets are putting pressure on the old model of finance.
“Capitalism is working, but not for enough people,” Fink wrote.
Their proposed solution focused on tokenization and digital distribution as tools to expand investment access and make markets work better.
Tokenization, Fink said, could “upgrade the plumbing of the financial system” by making it easier to issue, trade and access investments.
The idea is simple: If asset ownership is recorded on digital ledgers, moving a fund share, bond or other security could be faster and cheaper. In practice, that would allow a regulated digital wallet to hold not just payments, but also tokenized bonds, ETFs, and fractional interests in assets like infrastructure or private credit.
“Half the world’s population carries a digital wallet on their phone,” Fink wrote. “Imagine if that same digital wallet could also let you invest in a broad mix of companies for the long term, as easily as sending a payment.”
Fink compared today’s tokenization to the Internet in 1996, arguing that it will not replace traditional finance overnight, but could gradually connect new and old systems. He said policymakers should focus on building that bridge “as quickly and securely as possible” and called for clear buyer protections, counterparty risk standards and digital identity controls to reduce illicit financial risks.
The comments add to BlackRock’s broader push into digital assets. In the same letter, Fink said the company had built “early leadership” in the space, citing nearly $150 billion in assets connected to digital markets.
BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is the world’s largest tokenized fund, and the firm also manages $65 billion in stablecoin reserves and nearly $80 billion in digital asset exchange-traded products.
Still, much of the letter focused on deeper tensions in the American financial system. Fink warned that banks, corporations and governments can no longer finance big economic changes alone, especially as the country tries to rebuild manufacturing capacity, expand energy supplies and compete in artificial intelligence.
He also argued that Social Security remains a critical safety net, but that it may need structural reform, including some exposure to long-term market returns, to remain sustainable.
For Fink, tokenization sits within that broader picture. It’s not a far-fetched bet, but a bet that better pathways could help more people become investors rather than spectators.
His broader message was that finance needs an upgrade and that digital assets can become part of that overhaul.
