Note that the trend of criticism of digital assets on the back of niche collapse is not as popular as it may seem. Still, as BitMEX’s head of cryptocurrency exchange Alexander Hoeptner reported this week, the interest of large professional investors in the coin niche has not diminished over the past few months. Accordingly, they are aware of the industry’s potential and are willing to get involved even in relatively unfavourable conditions.

Is cryptocurrency a bubble?

Griffin believes that the main reason for the growth of both crypto assets and “meme stocks” is the widespread quarantine due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Stimulation of the US economy to deal with the effects of the quarantine has led investors to speculate en masse on the aforementioned high-risk assets. Still, earlier they had received a handout of free money that needed to be spent somewhere.

The "meme stocks" mentioned by the billionaire are securities of little-known or financially unstable companies, which are actively promoted in social networks among the younger generation of investors, including through memes. For example, early last year, shares in GameStop were widely promoted - their price soared at least a hundredfold due to the collective efforts of the community on Reddit.

In the crypto industry, the latest mega-popular trend has been unique non-interchangeable tokens, which EA doesn’t treat well either. NFTs from the most popular collections can be worth millions of dollars, with Hollywood celebrities even starting to actively buy them. By today, the NFT sector has experienced a marked decline. That said, the destruction of the bubble has generally benefited the US economy, Griffin is confident. Here’s his rejoinder, cited by Decrypt.

Now that we’re past that point in time and people are starting to spend their savings on travel, food and other necessities, we can confidently say that the speculative bubble is indeed deflating. And it is good for the economy. Misallocated money into speculative assets does not create jobs in the long run, nor does it contribute to the prosperity that makes America the country it is.

In fact, the cryptocurrency industry, even at its current stage of development, creates a lot of jobs – from jobs as cryptocurrency exchange analysts, where even Wall Street celebrities are invited, to young startup developers. Well, the main advantage of crypto is its long-term independence from the traditional financial system, which cannot be properly valued in dollar terms.

Unlike Griffin, executives at BlackRock, the largest investment company by assets under management, recognise the huge promise of crypto and blockchain. The day before, BlackRock launched the iShares Blockchain Technology UCITS ETF, an exchange-traded fund (ETF) that allows you to connect with the blockchain technology industry. In addition, some insiders claim that the company may launch another ETF targeting meta-universe projects in the foreseeable future.

According to BlackRock, the fund is 75 per cent made up of securities from mining companies and cryptocurrency exchanges. The remaining 25 per cent are securities of other companies that are indirectly related to the crypto industry, which means they also invest in digital assets. Omar Mufti, product strategist for thematic and sector ETFs at BlackRock, said the ETF “will give clients the opportunity to participate in the development of companies leading the way in blockchain ecosystems.” Here’s his rejoinder.

We believe that digital assets and blockchain technology will become increasingly relevant to our clients as their applications, scale and sophistication evolve.

According to Cointelegraph’s sources, the fund’s top five positions include cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase (13.20 per cent), USD (13.00 per cent), blockchain company Block (11.40 per cent), and mining companies Marathon Digital Holdings (11.13 per cent) and Riot Blockchain (10.50 per cent). Other assets include 23 IT companies, six financial companies, one industrial company and one communications firm. That is a total of 50 positions.

Bloomberg also claims the possible release of another iShares Future Metaverse Tech and Communications ETF focused on meta-universes. This is also indicated by the increase in mentions of meta-universes within the company that was noticed back in 2021.


News from BlackRock is an important indicator of professional institutional investors' interest in the crypto market. Digital assets are a long-term plan for them and an emerging industry that has unprecedented growth potential. So Ken Griffin's note above clearly has little to do with reality, given the abundance of benefits inherent in digital assets. Obviously, the expert has not understood them and for some reason has chosen to criticize crypto without a serious understanding of the topic.


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