BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, now owns at least $40,000 in NFTs and memecoins. The news was reported by on-chain sleuths that discovered one of BlackRock’s wallets connected to a tokenization fund.
On March 15th, one day after it filed for the BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund in partnership with Securitize (an asset tokenization firm), Blackrock made a $100 million $USDC deposit on Ethereum. The fund, which will be tickered “BUIDL,” will enable investors to earn U.S. dollar yields by subscribing through Security Markets, LLC.
Since March 19th, at least 25 NFTs and 40 memecoins have been sent to the BlackRock label address, including a CryptoDickbutts S3 NFT, Bitcoin Ordinals Pepe coin, KaijuKingz, and Chungos. 10,000 Realio Network (RIO) tokens and 500,000 unshETHing tokens (USH) were also transferred to the wallet. As per data from CoinGecko, the RIO token is up considerably since being transferred to BlackRock.
The CEO of BlackRock, Larry Fink, has changed his opinion on Bitcoin and crypto considerably since 2017, when he called it an “index of money laundering.” Since the firm’s Bitcoin ETF was approved earlier this year, it has been doing huge volumes and spurring on a return to the crypto bull market. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, Fink said that moving forward, the firm aims to tokenize “financial assets,” putting stocks and bonds “on one general ledger.”
In November 2023, BlackRock filed an application for its iShares Ethereum Trust, which would be listed on the Nasdaq if approved. For now, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision on the Ethereum ETF. However, BlackRock, which has $10 trillion in assets under its management, has been known to get what it wants, even if it takes some time.
The Ethereum ETF application and recent news about BlackRock’s tokenization fund shows the firm is interested in more than just Bitcoin. Whether you’re a fan of BlackRock or not, the news is bullish for crypto and Web3 overall.
NFTs and Memecoins Make Comeback
In January of this year, the SEC approved Bitcoin ETFs from BlackRock and ten other investment firms. Since then, the price of Bitcoin has soared from around $41,820 to its current price of $66,588 (at this time of writing). And as Bitcoin enjoys big gains, memecoins and NFTs are also experiencing a comeback.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ve reported several stories about huge memecoin gains and mouth-watering NFT sales in recent weeks. Here are some of the top headlines since January:
- CryptoPunks #7804 Sells for $16.42 Million
- DogWifHat Meme Image Sells as ETH NFT for $4.3M
- $100M Raised in Three Days for Solana Memecoin Sales
- $BODEN & Other Political Meme Coins Catch Fire
- Alien CryptoPunk Sells for $16 Million & Other Big NFT Sales
- Tom Brady NFT from Dapper Labs Sells for $40,000
When Bitcoin moves, the rest of the crypto space tends to move with it, and it appears this cycle is no different. While we don’t expect BlackRock to go out on a limb for memecoins and NFTs anytime soon, the fact its holding some in a wallet connected to its tokenization fund is, at the very least, exciting for degens and NFT fans to talk about.
At Rarity Sniper, we’ll be on the lookout for any updates to the story.