Podcast Summary: Bankless — "Inside BlackRock’s Crypto Strategy: Tokenization, Stablecoins & The Next Trillion"

Guest: Robbie Mitchnick, Head of Digital Assets, BlackRock
Host: Bankless
Date: November 10, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode offers a deep dive into BlackRock's view and involvement in the crypto and digital assets space. Robbie Mitchnick, BlackRock’s Head of Digital Assets, discusses institutional participation in crypto, the evolving cycles of the market, the “tokenization of everything,” and the pivotal role of stablecoins. The conversation outlines the progress in ETF adoption, tokenization of financial assets, regulatory clarity, and what will drive crypto for the next cycle.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Are Crypto Market Cycles Still Relevant?

• Bear Trap or Bear Market?
  • Robbie notes that crypto has survived multiple bear markets and severe corrections. The dynamics are changing due to institutional participation.

    “If we counted the number of times that people have declared it over over the sixteen years then that'd be a pretty high number. [...] This is the fifth cycle we've seen in bitcoin and crypto's history...” — Robbie (01:01–01:08)

• The Diminished Role of the Bitcoin Halving:
  • Institutional inflows via ETFs now dwarf any impact from scheduled halvings.

    “The bitcoin halving at this point is almost totally irrelevant. [...] ETF's are accumulating inflows [...] many multiples larger than any change in supply created by a bitcoin halving event...” — Robbie (03:36–03:52)

• Institutional ‘Ballast’ and New Dynamics:
  • Large investors stabilize markets, and their behavior (waiting for dips to buy) marks a shift from previous cycles dominated by retail psychology.
  • Recent major sell-offs, like the 21 billion liquidation event (Oct 10), were absorbed with little ETF outflow, highlighting institutional resilience.

    “What was the impact on ETF outflows? Tiny. [...] There wasn't any relevant news like there was, just kind of noise.” — Robbie (04:39–04:53)

2. Crypto’s Narrative: Risk-On, Hedge, or Digital Gold?

• Behavior in Market Downturns:
  • Institutions are sometimes confused by crypto's correlation with equities, but the long-term thesis remains its role as a global, scarce, uncorrelated asset.

    “Bitcoin is not a risk on asset. It's really more like an uncorrelated hedge type asset, more like a digital gold.” — Host, referencing Robbie’s past comments (13:30)

• Gold vs. Bitcoin in 2025:
  • Gold’s recent outperformance is described as “catch-up” after Bitcoin’s late 2024 rally. Bitcoin’s momentum was derailed by flash crashes, not fundamentals.

    “Bitcoin actually had a massive rally to end twenty twenty four [...] gold didn't have that same reaction that it’s now obviously had a tremendous year since...” — Robbie (14:41–14:50)

• Long-Term Holders, ETFs, and Bitcoin’s ‘IPO Moment’:
  • Some original Bitcoin whales are cashing out at $100k, but Robbie finds this rational and distinct from an IPO analogy.

    “One hundred thousand was a target that I think a lot of very early investors maybe had for whatever reason... At some point you do have to take some chips off the table.” — Robbie (17:37–17:59)

3. Institutional Participation & Remaining Catalysts

• Which Institutions Own Crypto?
  • All major archetypes (family offices, asset managers, sovereign wealth, etc.) have some exposure, but adoption is still limited and early-stage.

    “You have some adopters in every one of those archetypes but not the majority, not even close.” — Robbie (19:41–19:47)

• Allocation Sizes & Trends:
  • Allocations are typically in the 1–3% range of institutional portfolios; however, the share of institutional investors is steadily rising.

    “The allocation levels that you're seeing from those who have is typically in kind of a one to three percent range.” — Robbie (24:28)

• What Holds Institutions Back? Correlation:
  • Their key question: Does Bitcoin behave like a risk-on asset or like digital gold? Persistent low correlation to equities would unlock large-scale adoption.

    “It's all about correlation. [...] CIO said literally that's the one metric I'm looking at: correlation.” — Robbie (20:12–20:36)

• Central Banks as Future Buyers?
  • Central banks’ interest in Bitcoin is distant and not critical to the thesis; focus remains on other large institutions.

    “I think those other institutional categories that I mentioned are probably far more likely to see meaningful adoption [...] than are central banks.” — Robbie (26:32–26:45)

4. BlackRock’s ETF & Tokenization Strategy

• ETF Performance and Adoption:

  • BlackRock’s iBIT (Bitcoin ETF) is the fastest-growing ETF post-launch ever:

    “iBIT today has been the fastest growing ETF post launch in history [...] four x faster than the prior record.” — Robbie (28:02)

  • ETHA (Ethereum ETF) picked up pace over summer, driven by improved sentiment, stablecoin narrative, and optimism around tokenization.

    “Sentiment in ether had gotten overly negative this winter [...] and was kind of all doom and gloom. [...] There was some element of a relief rally.” — Robbie (29:57–30:04)

• What is Tokenization? BlackRock’s Approach:

  • Tokenization means putting traditional assets (money market funds, bonds, stocks, real estate) on blockchain rails for real-time settlement and programmable finance.

    “We really started with BITLE as our first public blockchain tokenized fund [...] almost three billion in assets.” — Robbie (32:09–32:20)

  • The most “material new value or utility for investors” so far has come from tokenized money market funds — breaking old tradeoffs between liquidity and yield.

    “Tokenizing them has broken the paradigm that previously existed that forced you to choose between capturing full yield on your US dollar savings and having full liquidity.” — Robbie (32:36)

• What’s Next?

  • The roadmap: focus on high-utility assets first (money market funds, stablecoins), then expand to other classes like stocks, real estate, and private markets as infrastructure and regulation mature.

5. Regulatory Clarity, Custody, and Marketplaces

• What Was Missing for Tokenization to Scale? - Institutional custodians: Major traditional custodians are building tokenized asset capabilities. - Secondary marketplaces: Progress in DeFi, less in traditional finance exchanges. - Regulatory clarity: SEC has been supportive, but nuanced, complex work remains.

  “There's a really complex challenge before us as an industry [...] to figure out how to make the ultra rules and what novel rules and exceptions come into play that harness the innovative potential and opportunities from this technology.” — Robbie (38:23–38:42)

• Progress and Outlook:

  • Huge progress in custody; process ongoing in regulation; secondary marketplaces lag but expected to follow as clarity increases.

6. The Bull and Bear Case for Tokenization

• Bull Case:
  • Over 5–10 years, Robbie foresees the “tokenization of everything”—a rapid S-curve uptick once infrastructure matures.

    “Once you have a bunch of asset classes that hit that inflection point, it becomes a lot easier to bring along other asset classes in behind it.” — Robbie (45:48)

• Bear Case:
  • Only stablecoins and tokenized money market funds gain traction—still a huge win due to their utility.

    “The bear case is that only stablecoins work. It's hard to imagine a world where not even stablecoins have significant adoption [...] that horse has left the barn.” — Robbie (48:39–49:07)

• Stablecoin Future:
  • No expectation of thousands of stablecoins; network effects mean a few winners will dominate (likely USDC and USDT).

    “Network effects are really powerful in the stablecoin space [...] I certainly wouldn't expect we'll have a thousand different stablecoins.” — Robbie (52:33–52:51)

7. Tokenization and Traditional Finance

• Impact on Banks:
  • Tokenized yield funds will allow users to earn yield and instantly convert to stablecoins for payments, reducing focus on interest payments on stablecoins themselves and diminishing banking resistance.

    “Tokenized yield funds become the natural vehicle through which users hold US dollars on a sort of going concern basis and capture that full interest.” — Robbie (51:09–51:27)

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the cycles ending:

  “There were some big events that actually precipitated those endings… We haven’t seen anything like that here.” — Robbie (06:17)

• On institutions’ key metric:

  “That’s the one metric I’m looking at: correlation. [...] If it actually is uncorrelated digital gold like instrument [...] it’s a slam dunk.” — Robbie (20:28–20:39)

• On tokenization’s test:

  “Now it’s finally the environment where that regulatory support exists and so it’s time to prove it.” — Robbie (54:17)

• On investor advice:

  “There’s a reason bitcoin is still roughly sixty five percent of the market cap of the space because it has very clear product market fit and investor narrative...” — Robbie (56:12)

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:00] — Institutional investors in crypto: Who's here, who's not.
• [03:25] — Why the classic Bitcoin halving cycle may be over.
• [10:54] — How big sell-offs affect institutional interest.
• [13:30] — Bitcoin as digital gold: Is it still uncorrelated?
• [22:26] — The importance of correlation in institutional adoption.
• [24:27] — Institutional allocation sizes (1–3%).
• [27:27] — Performance and impact of IBIT and ETHA ETFs.
• [32:08] — BlackRock’s tokenization roadmap and focus on utility.
• [36:43] — Progress on custody, marketplaces, and regulatory clarity.
• [44:52] — Bull (tokenize everything) and bear (only stablecoins) cases for tokenization.
• [53:28] — What success looks like for crypto and BlackRock by late 2026.
• [56:10] — Robbie’s advice for institutions during volatility.

Conclusion: The “Show Me” Era

BlackRock's digital assets strategy is at the forefront of institutionalization in crypto. The next phase, as Robbie Mitchnick frames it, is about showing real, large-scale adoption and tangible use cases—especially as regulatory clarity increases. Tokenization is both a promise and a test: can blockchain reshape the fundamental plumbing of traditional finance? For now, stablecoins and money market funds lead, and BlackRock is betting many more asset classes will follow.

Disclaimer:
As always, none of the discussion is financial advice. Crypto assets remain volatile and risky, and sensible portfolio management and skepticism are advised.