BlackRock’s CIO Says Bitcoin Could Replace Gold

[fillippone]

Yet another money manager, the second biggest money manager in the world, admit the bitcoin might be here to stay:

BlackRock’s Chief Investment Officer Says Bitcoin Could Replace Gold to a Large Extent

The chief decision maker for where BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, invests its funds said bitcoin could take the place of gold to a large extent because crypto is “so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around.”

Speaking during CNBC's Squawk Box on Friday, BlackRock CIO of Fixed Income Rick Rieder responded to a question asking if governments might try to regulate bitcoin if its price keeps rallying.

• "I think cryptocurrency's here to stay, I think it is ... durable," he said.
• Alongside central banks developing digital currencies, millennials' "receptivity" to technology and cryptocurrency "is real, digital payments systems is real," Rieder said.
• "Do I think it's a durable mechanism that ... could take the place of gold to a large extent? Yeah, I do, because it's so much more functional than passing a bar of gold around," Rieder said.
• The CIO balanced that by saying he's not particularly a bitcoin bull and doesn't include it much in business and corporate portfolios. Further, it's not clear if bitcoin is worth its current price of over $18,000 price, he said.

You know I have been following this phase 5 trend quite closely.
This is something getting too big for the industry to ignore.

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[Vaskiy]

Quite often we get hear the voice of managers and top level people describing the good with bitcoin and the associated reason. Myself too believe gold will get replaced by bitcoin, and this won't happen soon or in the near future. Bitcoin is something as a currency, whereas the gold is a precious metal that has multiple usage on different purposes starting from jewellery to medical industry.

Gold traded around the globe in comparison to bitcoin and cryptocurrencies is very huge. When bitcoin reaches a growth rate of 500% gold could experience a growth rate not more than 10% which makes it more risk free.

[Ucy]

Certainly better than centralized "digital gold" (or physical gold represented digitally).  
Will prefer to compare Physical Gold vs some sort of Physical bitcoin. The physical bitcoin would need to do what Physical Gold can do, like lasting many years in harsh conditions without losing its physical quality, (which would qualify it as a good Store of Value in physical World) etc... to be consider good alternative to physical gold.

[poodle63]

Why should Bitcoin replace gold though? It's not like any of them competing to each other or trying to replace each other. I just don't understand about all the people who discuss whether bitcoin gold gonna be replaced by bitcoin I mean gold is mineral and crypto is digital currency. Totally different thing and frankly the time when asset manager admits the potential of something is the time when that manager invests into that thing so just take his opinion with grain of salt although I agree with his opinion that Bitcoin or crypto is gonna be here to stay for a long time.

[blockman]

He's right about the logic of using gold as payment. It's one of the best assets but bitcoin seems to overtake its place having a lot of usecase such as a payment method. Actually, it's the main reason why satoshi has made bitcoin but because of its volatility became an asset later.
Signs from the institutions are coming and if bitcoin keeps rising, it's harder for them to ignore it.

[fillippone]

Why should Bitcoin replace gold though? It's not like any of them competing to each other or trying to replace each other. I just don't understand about all the people who discuss whether bitcoin gold gonna be replaced by bitcoin I mean gold is mineral and crypto is digital currency. Totally different thing and frankly the time when asset manager admits the potential of something is the time when that manager invests into that thing so just take his opinion with grain of salt although I agree with his opinion that Bitcoin or crypto is gonna be here to stay for a long time.

Bitcoin is seldom compared to gold as it is the first digital good that has scarcity. Scarcity is a necessary condition for anything to be precious.
I do recommend reading the following thread to get a grasp for the reason:
Stock-to-Flow Model: Modeling Bitcoin's Value with Scarcity

If you want to measure the success of bitcoin without the optical illusion of the failing (debasement) of the fiat system, you can actually look at bitcoin measured in gold:

1 #bitcoin  = 10 ounces of gold .. and counting🚀

https://twitter.com/100trillionusd/status/1329861535569731584?s=21

[Fortify]

It's possible that Bitcoin could replace gold, but the one major obstacle I see is that gold cannot be stolen by somebody physically on the other side of the world. You don't go to bed in Europe one night and have the possibility that someone (somehow) managed to break into your safe from Australia. It is an extreme example where everyone knows that it is almost impossible to crack into a bitcoin wallet, but having physical gold stored does actually have a distinct difference than an online encrypted wallet that could conceivably be hacked. Just trying to play devil's advocate and think of scenarios where it isn't a like for like comparison. Ultimately I do think that Bitcoin is the equivalent of digital gold, but I'm not sure it will ever replaced gold entirely and it should be considered an extra way to diversify assets - which is a great thing anyway.

[fillippone]

It's possible that Bitcoin could replace gold, but the one major obstacle I see is that gold cannot be stolen by somebody physically on the other side of the world. You don't go to bed in Europe one night and have the possibility that someone (somehow) managed to break into your safe from Australia. It is an extreme example where everyone knows that it is almost impossible to crack into a bitcoin wallet, but having physical gold stored does actually have a distinct difference than an online encrypted wallet that could conceivably be hacked. Just trying to play devil's advocate and think of scenarios where it isn't a like for like comparison. Ultimately I do think that Bitcoin is the equivalent of digital gold, but I'm not sure it will ever replaced gold entirely and it should be considered an extra way to diversify assets - which is a great thing anyway.

I think losing access to your gold is several orders of magnitude easier than losing access to your bitcoins.
Gold is secured by metal and security systems.
Bitcoin is secured by maths.

If you don’t do stupid things Bitcoin is almost impossible to steal.
Gold is stolen everyday, from burglary, to Bank of England refusing to give access to your gold because you are a South American Dictator (true story)

[Charles-Tim]

Normally, one of the reasons bitcoin is better than gold is because it is not physical and because bitcoin is more flexible, even 1 satoshi can count. I made an article earlier about what MicroStrategy CEO commented about bitcoin and gold. You can check that from the below link.

Learning from what MicroStrategy CEO Explains about Bitcoin
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5288295.msg55564429#msg55564429

From the link, we will be able to also know that bitcoin has limited supply, unlike gold that has continuous supply, we know that supply can reduce the price of an asset, but bitcoin only have 21 million btc to be mind in total. People are getting more literate daily and knowing more about bitcoin, with the look of things, if people are finding out about this, knowing the real worth of bitcoin as a limitted supply asset, they will turn to bitcoin which could later possibly have effect on gold price.

[Princejebs]

We used to hear bitcoin will replace the banks, will do these and that but I have to agree more on this statement. Look at this way:

• bitcoin is very limited, gold its but not certain.
• financially, I will choose bitcoin and hedge my fund with it because of it immensely growth over the past years.
• With Bitcoin, your keys your funds. Unlike Gold that you have to safeguard in banks and vault to avoid been stolen.
  

Bitcoin is the future, the true and one and only freedom to financial status.

[milewilda]

Yet another money manager, the second biggest money manager in the world, admit the bitcoin might be here to stay:

You know I have been following this phase 5 trend quite closely.
This is something getting too big for the industry to ignore.

Its inevitable for these big players wont able to recognize nor be fully aware on whats bitcoin been doing on this time which everytime bitcoins price reach new heights or do make
significant price rise then these kind of sentiments do really pops out from nowhere which do came from some popular personalities and companies which a thing that it isnt surprising.
We do have all the rights to tell on whats up to our minds but i do fully disagree into that line that bitcoin could replace Gold. In what sense?
Both cant really be compared when it comes to its own key area. Digital currency wont be equal into an valuable earth nature resource.

[2double0]

These names are the ones who don't have money only, but a money shop which they can use to pool up and collect more money from other investors in the markets and then collectively invest in a segment which they believe, it will give them the best returns. Btc has caught the eyes of everyone when it started standing up back on its legs by growing after the crash of 2018. In the history of stocks and any assets, I hardly remember any asset which had shown same results after surviving a crash.

[figmentofmyass]

This is something getting too big for the industry to ignore.

it's hilarious considering what their CEO larry fink was saying about bitcoin just a few years ago:

In an earlier interview with Bloomberg, Fink said: “I don’t believe any client has sought out crypto exposure.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/07/16/bitcoin-jumps-after-report-says-blackrock-exploring-cryptocurrencies.html

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink took a shot at cryptocurrency bitcoin on Friday, calling it an “index of money laundering.”

“Bitcoin just shows you how much demand for money laundering there is in the world,” Fink, the head of the largest asset management firm in the world, said at an Institute of International Finance meeting. “That’s all it is.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/13/blackrock-ceo-larry-fink-calls-bitcoin-an-index-of-money-laundering.html

bitcoin, clearly taking the world by storm!

i'd still like to hear this straight from larry fink. he's up there with jamie dimon in terms of his influence and past skepticism about bitcoin. the "CIO of fixed income" doesn't carry quite the same authority.

[STT]

This is something getting too big for the industry to ignore.

Price doesnt determine success, we're higher but there is much progress before I take it that BTC is unstoppable.  Its still a developing story of what might be rather then literally waiting in the wings.    I take bankers as car salesman, they didnt make these markets but they want to be part of it because of the commision and with higher price comes a higher potential for their fees in that price so of course its now interesting to them.
   Gold and Bitcoin are quite different in their purposes and advantages and neither is wiping the other out.    Dollar is digital and quite replaceable by a number of alternatives including BTC, gold isnt nearly as big as the dollar market and not so significant.   I will take the point that BTC is considered alongside gold to a greater extent as valid in a portfolio but I think its stealing market share from dollar bonds more then gold.

[hatshepsut93]

Why should Bitcoin replace gold though? It's not like any of them competing to each other or trying to replace each other. I just don't understand about all the people who discuss whether bitcoin gold gonna be replaced by bitcoin I mean gold is mineral and crypto is digital currency. Totally different thing and frankly the time when asset manager admits the potential of something is the time when that manager invests into that thing so just take his opinion with grain of salt although I agree with his opinion that Bitcoin or crypto is gonna be here to stay for a long time.

He doesn't say that people will throw their gold in dumpsters if Bitcoin overtakes it, what he really means is that there's a chance that Bitcoin will become the new dominant store of value that is not some fiat currency. I personally think there's a really long road ahead if that will ever happen, Bitcoin isn't really well known to society right now, there's probably still a lot of people who never heard of it.

[slapper]

I do not think that bitcoin will replace gold. Gold has been a reputable asset for such a long time and it is hard for any asset to fully take it place.

But who knows? Maybe in the future, there will be a time for bitcoin to replace gold.

[gentlemand]

Bitcoin is something as a currency, whereas the gold is a precious metal that has multiple usage on different purposes starting from jewellery to medical industry.

And these people don't give a shit about that aspect. Gold's actual usefulness makes up for a small proportion of its value. The rest is store of value, speculation and safe haven. That's where the big bucks reside.

Governments and central banks are the real players when it comes to gold. I can't ever see them replacing it with BTC. That still leaves a lot of players elsewhere.

[fillippone]

Gentle reminder: BlackRock is not an hedge fund, it’s a money manager. This means they are not putting their own money at risk, but client’s money.
They don’t give a shit about bitcoin. But if clients ask to go long bitcoin, they will let them do so vis one of their products. Collecting a management fee, of course.

[The Sceptical Chymist]

Bitcoin is something as a currency, whereas the gold is a precious metal that has multiple usage on different purposes starting from jewellery to medical industry.

And these people don't give a shit about that aspect.
<snip>
Governments and central banks are the real players when it comes to gold. I can't ever see them replacing it with BTC. That still leaves a lot of players elsewhere.

I'm not sure what value gold has to central banks, but I'm just an ignorant pleb who didn't major in economics.  I'm not even sure how important gold is to governments anymore, seeing as none of them are on a gold standard and can basically create money out of thin air at will.

As regards the CIO's statement, I do regard it as extremely bullish for bitcoin.  I don't think it's going to be as important as a store of value as gold is, but there's just so much potential in bitcoin (and crypto in general) that hasn't been tapped by big banks/governments, and I think it's only a matter of time before bitcoin becomes very scarce. 

[Darker45]

Bitcoin is something as a currency, whereas the gold is a precious metal that has multiple usage on different purposes starting from jewellery to medical industry.

And these people don't give a shit about that aspect.
<snip>
Governments and central banks are the real players when it comes to gold. I can't ever see them replacing it with BTC. That still leaves a lot of players elsewhere.

I'm not sure what value gold has to central banks, but I'm just an ignorant pleb who didn't major in economics.  I'm not even sure how important gold is to governments anymore, seeing as none of them are on a gold standard and can basically create money out of thin air at will.

Such is the very reason why central banks are not discarding their gold. I mean, the fiat currency is created out of thin air. It is hollow. In the deeper analysis, it is highly unstable and does not have any actual value. When fiat was backed by gold, it was more dependable. Now that it is merely backed by debt, it could crumble any time. Gold reserves still make central banks and governments feel confident and at ease. If worst comes to worst with fiat, they could always depend on gold.

As regards the CIO's statement, I do regard it as extremely bullish for bitcoin.  I don't think it's going to be as important as a store of value as gold is, but there's just so much potential in bitcoin (and crypto in general) that hasn't been tapped by big banks/governments, and I think it's only a matter of time before bitcoin becomes very scarce. 

The supply is fast dwindling. There are so many indicators suggesting Bitcoin's supply in the market is draining. We've just hit an all-time low of Bitcoin's supply in exchanges within the year. Bitcoin speculators are also vanishing. Many of them must have shifted to pure hodling. Dormant Bitcoins are also reaching new ATHs. These are all bullish indicators.