Morning Minute: Larry Fink Says Crypto, Tokenization Just Getting Started

Morning Minute is a daily newsletter written by Tyler Warner. The analysis and opinions expressed are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of Decrypt. Subscribe to the Morning Minute on Substack.

GM!

Today’s top news:

• Crypto majors fall as China trade war rhetoric escalates; BTC at $111k
• Gold hits another new ATH as Bitcoin and crypto lags
• Larry Fink leans into tokenization, says BlackRock is building tech
• Elon praises Bitcoin’s energy foundation in surprising about face
• MetaMask partners with Polymarket to bring prediction markets in-wallet

🧭 Larry Fink on Crypto: Innovations in Digital Assets

BlackRock’s Larry Fink had a lot to say about crypto yesterday.

And the primary takeaway - we’re just getting started.

📌 What happened

On CNBC yesterday, Larry Fink praised how spot Bitcoin ETFs opened the door for mainstream investors.

Then he got specific on how tokenization is the future.

The world he envisions includes mutual funds, private credit, money markets, even real-world assets issued as tokens, settling near-instantly, with compliance baked into the token (who can hold it, where it can move, when it can trade).

He said BlackRock is building the tech to drop these products directly into digital wallets, cut settlement frictions, slash transfer/record-keeping costs, and give clients 24/7 portability.

He also stressed that Bitcoin still has a role, but sized responsibly.

🗣️ What They’re Saying

“We’re just at the beginning of the tokenization of all assets, from real estate to equity to bonds, across the board.” — Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, on CNBC

🧠 Why it matters

ETFs are the on-ramp today; the bigger story is tokenizing pretty much everything tomorrow.

This is the playbook from the world’s biggest asset manager:

• Right now: ETFs keep steady demand flowing into BTC and make advisors comfortable recommending it.
• Next up: tokenization makes every kind of asset trading better - faster, cheaper, and wallet-friendly
• Net effect: better tech, more access, less friction.

Overall, this means more people gaining access to these investment products, which is a win. And they’ll be able to trade more efficiently via blockchain with lower fees - win win.

But it might not be a complete win.

Ethereum was largely expected to be the home of RWA tokenization.

If that happens on BlackRock’s own rails (and other banks / institutions follow suit), that does hurt one aspect of the Ethereum bull case.

But there also may be a world where bringing that amount of assets and asset types onchain is more net bullish overall than it is bearish to the Ethereum tokenization bull case.

Time will tell…

🌎 Macro Crypto and Memes

A few Crypto and Web3 headlines that caught my eye:

• Crypto majors are green after yesterday morning’s sell off; BTC +1% at $112,000, ETH +3% at $4,100, BNB even at $1,190, SOL +3% at $203
• ZEC (+15%), XPL (+14%) and Morpho (+9%) led top movers
• Gold hit another new ATH over $4,240 overnight
• Jerome Powell said that Quantitative Tightening (QT) could end in the coming months, alluding to tightening in markets
• Larry Fink said that BlackRock is focusing on tokenization and building their own tech to enable it
• Elon Musk commented favorably about Bitcoin on Tuesday, praising its energy foundation and saying “it is impossible to fake energy”
• MetaMask announced a partnership with Polymarket to bring prediction markets in wallet
• Binance pledged another $400M for those impacted by last week’s crash, with $300M for retail traders and $100M in low interest loans for institutional players
• Japanese regulators moved to ban crypto insider trading, targeting a 2026 law to police nonpublic information abuses
• New York City created a Digital Assets and Blockchain Office by executive order, formalizing a crypto policy hub as Mayor Eric Adams exits
• A new Republican bill would codify Trump’s crypto-in-401(k) executive order, pushing retirement-plan providers toward allowing regulated digital-asset exposure
• PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD has surged from $5M to $452M in just a month on Kamino, making it the fastest growing stablecoin in Sol and ETH DeFi

In Corporate Treasuries / ETFs

• The Bitcoin ETFs saw $102.7M in net inflows on Tuesday despite Blackrock’s first day of outflows in weeks; ETH saw $236.2M in net inflows
• VanEck filed an updated S-1 for its spot Solana ETF, setting the management fee at 0.30%, in a sign that approval may be around the corner

In Memes

• Memecoin leaders are mostly green; DOGE +1%, Shiba +2%, PEPE +2%, PENGU +1%, BONK +4%, TRUMP +1%, SPX +1%, and FARTCOIN +4%
• USELESS jumped another 20% to $420M and close to flipping Fartcoin
• 4 rebounded 36% to $186M after its Reload Airdrop program went live

💰 Token, Airdrop & Protocol Tracker

Here’s a rundown of major token, protocol and airdrop news from the day:

• Monad released its airdrop claim portal, allowing recipients to see their tier and strength level (social, EVM and Solana power usage were rewarded)
• Aster completed its phase 2 airdrop, returning USD accounting for fees spent by users; they also shared updates for phase 3 scoring
• BNB issued the first round of its $45M Reload Airdrop, randomly rewarding users who traded BNB memes with BNB tokens, with 3 more waves to come
• Myriad shared new info on its Perpetual Sentiment Markets, a new form of “poll” that never resolves and reflects current state of user views
• Ethena announced that USDtb has become the first stablecoin in compliance with Genius Act after transition to Anchorage Digital
• Kinetiq announced that its final kPoints snapshot has been taken, final distribution tomorrow

🚚 What is happening in NFTs?

Here is the list of other notable headlines from the day in NFTs:

• NFT leaders were mostly flat; Punks -4% at 44.5 ETH, Pudgy even at 7.6, BAYC even at 7.95 ETH; Hypurr’s +2% at 1,228 HYPE
• Chimpers (+11%) and Good Vibes Club (+5%) were top movers
• Magic Eden announced that RWA and NFT packs are coming to its platform