The world's largest asset manager, BlackRock, said that Bitcoin (BTC) is starting to play an increasingly critical role in institutional investment portfolios.

Robbie Mitchnick, head of the firm’s digital assets unit, said that if Bitcoin breaks away from its correlation with tech stocks, “it becomes riskier not to own BTC.”

“Bitcoin’s correlation with tech stocks will be a critical determinant for institutional investors,” Mitchnick said. “If Bitcoin behaves like a tech stock, it won’t be very attractive to institutions. But if it shows low or negative correlation, meaning it can remain stable during times of sudden risky declines, then it could become a very important asset for many institutional portfolios.”

Bitcoin supporters argue that BTC has begun to decouple from stocks and is trading with lower volatility, indicating Bitcoin’s “safe haven” identity, which helps position it as an asset similar to gold.

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Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas, who moderated the panel with BlackRock representative Mitchnick, said: “Large institutions are looking for digital gold. They want a hedge against inflation and market volatility, an indestructible currency.”

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has also long described Bitcoin as “digital gold,” and that rhetoric is central to the company’s strategy to attract investors to its Bitcoin ETF, which launched in January 2024 and has received about $57 billion in inflows to date.

*This is not investment advice.

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