BlackRock Investment Management & Financial Service. Taken on October 10, 2024. Photo by Anthony Quintano via Flickr.BlackRock is not recommending crypto as a hedge right now, despite holding $48 billion in Bitcoin and $2 billion in ETH. They’re predicting a recession and still not pushing crypto.
Jean Boivin, head of the BlackRock Investment Institute, said the market’s too unstable and the risks are piling up. “Trade tensions have triggered a risk asset selloff,” Jean said in a note to clients on Tuesday.
This came after president Donald Trump pushed for new tariffs on foreign countries. That announcement blew up the market late last week. Traders panicked. Stocks got dumped. Investors scrambled for anything safe.
BlackRock immediately downgraded U.S. stocks from “overweight” to “neutral” and turned toward short-term U.S. Treasurys, raising their rating from “neutral” to “overweight.” Jean said the firm is now reducing risk, tightening its tactical window to just three months.
BlackRock cuts exposure and leans into short-term Treasurys
Jean wrote that volatility will stick around and there’s no sign of stability yet. “We shorten our tactical horizon … and reduce risk,” he said. “Turning neutral on U.S. equities and preferring short-term Treasuries.”
The team sees no reason to recommend crypto while the whole market feels like it’s on fire. Jean believes equities will stay shaky until something clears up with Trump’s trade policies.
Even though stocks tried to bounce back on Tuesday, it was so obviously a ‘dead cat bounce,’ or the ‘sucker rally,’ as Wall Street bros like to call it. People dumped risk assets across the board. The S&P 500 rose over 4% during the day but still ended with a 1.6% drop. The Dow jumped 3.9% early in the session, then fell 0.8% by the close.
Nasdaq-100 futures fell 1.21%, S&P 500 futures dropped 1.53%, and Dow Jones futures lost 1.54%, dropping 583 points. None of it helped. Markets stayed on edge, and Jean said the “extreme uncertainty” around tariffs sparked the whole selloff.
BlackRock expects this pressure to continue. Jean said, “If clarity comes quickly, we would up risk-taking again.” Until then, he’s advising clients to stay defensive. That means short-term U.S. Treasurys over longer-term ones, since interest rates and inflation remain high.
The firm sees core inflation as sticky, and the U.S. deficit as a red flag. Jean told investors to avoid long-term Treasurys entirely. He added that gold might help balance things out in this kind of market, but never once mentioned crypto as part of the safe zone.
Meanwhile, Bitcoin is still floating around $77,428, but BlackRock’s silence is loud. While retail investors bleed out and big players sit still, there are growing claims that cartels are shaking out the market. Some believe they’re crashing crypto prices on purpose so they can buy up cheap and take control of the space—just like how Wall Street took over the stock game.
Cryptopolitan Academy: Want to grow your money in 2025? Learn how to do it with DeFi in our upcoming webclass. Save Your Spot
