BlackRock, a leading asset management company, has recently acquired a substantial amount of memecoins and nonfungible tokens (NFTs), totaling at least $40,000. This discovery was made by individuals investigating one of BlackRock’s supposed wallets associated with a new tokenization fund.
On March 15, data revealed that a deposit of $100 million in USD Coin (USDC) was made on the Ethereum blockchain. This deposit occurred just one day after BlackRock announced its partnership with San Francisco-based asset tokenization firm Securitize, signaling its intention to offer the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund.
Since March 19, unidentified crypto users have sent a variety of 40 coins and 25 NFTs to the BlackRock wallet. These tokens range from Bitcoin-based Ordinals Pepe (PEPE) coins to a CryptoDickbutts S3 NFT. Additionally, notable amounts of 500,000 unshETHing_Token (USH) and 10,000 Realio Network (RIO) tokens were transferred to BlackRock, with the RIO token experiencing a 47% increase in value since its transfer.
Furthermore, BlackRock received significant quantities of Mog Coin (Mog), VoldemortTrumpRobotnik-10Neko (ETHEREUM), Shina Inu (SHI), Chungos, and KaijuKingz NFTs. The BlackRock wallet initially made a $200 USDC deposit on March 5, followed by a $10 test deposit on March 15, and finally a substantial deposit of $99,999,960 shortly after.
It is worth noting that BlackRock’s CEO, Larry Fink, has had a change of heart regarding Bitcoin and the blockchain industry. In 2017, Fink referred to Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering.” However, since then, BlackRock has filed for and received approval for a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF), which has become one of the most actively traded ETFs on the market. Fink and BlackRock are now focused on tokenizing financial assets on the Ethereum blockchain.
In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Fink expressed his belief that the future of finance entails the tokenization of all financial assets, including stocks and bonds, on a single ledger. As part of this vision, BlackRock is launching the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund, which will allow eligible investors to earn U.S. dollar yields by subscribing to the fund through Securitize Markets, LLC. The fund will be known as “BUIDL.”
Overall, BlackRock’s involvement in the cryptocurrency and tokenization space highlights the growing interest of traditional financial institutions in these emerging technologies.