BlackRock Chairman and CEO Larry Fink used his annual letter to shareholders to argue that digital assets and tokenization could help update the financial system, even as he warned that the U.S. economic model leaves too many people behind.
In the letter, Fink said the current system has brought most of its gains to people who already own assets, while many workers have been excluded from market growth. He linked this imbalance to a broader problem in the United States, where growing inequality, high public debt and low participation in capital markets are putting pressure on the old financial model.
“Capitalism works, but not for enough people,” Fink wrote.
Its solution proposal focused on tokenization and digital distribution as tools to expand access to investment and improve the functioning of markets.
Tokenization, Fink said, could “update the plumbing of the financial system” by making it easier to issue, trade and access investments.
The idea is simple: if ownership of assets is recorded on digital ledgers, transferring a share of funds, a bond or other security could become faster and cheaper. In practice, this would allow a regulated digital wallet to hold not only payments, but also tokenized bonds, ETFs, and fractional stakes in assets such as infrastructure or private credit.
“Half the world’s population has a digital wallet on their phone,” Fink wrote. “Imagine if that same digital wallet could also allow you to invest in a wide range of companies over the long term, as easily as sending a payment.”
Fink compared tokenization today to the Internet in 1996, saying it won’t replace traditional finance overnight, but could gradually connect old and new systems. He said policymakers should focus on building this bridge “as quickly and safely as possible” and called for clear protections for buyers, counterparty risk standards and digital identity controls to reduce the risks of illicit financing.
These comments add to BlackRock’s broader effort in the digital assets space. In the same letter, Fink said the company had gained “early leadership” in the space, citing nearly $150 billion in assets tied to digital markets.
BlackRock’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL) is the world’s largest tokenized fund, and the company also manages $65 billion in stablecoin reserves and nearly $80 billion in digital asset exchange-traded products.
Yet much of the letter focused on deeper tensions in the U.S. financial system. Fink warned that banks, businesses and governments can no longer finance big economic changes alone, especially as the country tries to rebuild its manufacturing capacity, increase its energy supply and compete in the field of artificial intelligence.
He also argued that Social Security remains an essential safety net, but may require structural reform, including some exposure to long-term market returns, to remain sustainable.
For Fink, tokenization is part of this broader vision. This isn’t a bet on hype, but a bet that better rails could help more people become investors rather than spectators.
His broader message was that finance needs an upgrade and that digital assets could be part of that overhaul.
