$BTC That Wall Street tycoon who once trashed Bitcoin the hardest has really embarrassed himself this time.

At a New York Times event on December 4, the CEO of a major asset management giant, Larry Fink, was confronted by the host on the spot—"Didn't you say back in 2017 that cryptocurrencies were just tools for money laundering and crime? So why are you now holding the world's largest Bitcoin ETF?"

The old man was pretty straightforward, not dodging the question: "Opposed to Bitcoin back then? Yes, I was. I was wrong."

You have to remember, eight years ago this big shot was stomping all over Bitcoin—calling it a "bubble game with no credit backing," a "tulip mania 2.0," and all sorts of harsh words. And now? Their Bitcoin ETF has already surpassed $100 billion, firmly taking the industry lead.

Fink himself was quite candid: "I'm stubborn, but I'm not stupid. Dealing with thousands of clients and politicians from various countries every year, you have to open your eyes to reality, right?"

Behind these words is Wall Street's classic "smells so good" principle—

At first? Traditional finance folks felt superior: stuff without government credit or physical collateral is just chips for retail gamblers, right?

Later? Clients kept asking, "Can we get some crypto exposure?" This thing's market cap actually surged to $2 trillion, rising and falling but never dying. Couldn't sit still anymore: first quietly poach technical talent from the crypto industry, then integrate Bitcoin data into their core systems, and finally just launch an ETF product—

Now they're not only publicly admitting their mistake, but also branding Bitcoin as "digital gold," calling it a "legitimate asset that can hedge against inflation." Of course, the old fox didn't go all in: "Don't overweight it, it shouldn't be your core allocation." But look at the ETF's growth rate—they're about to push traditional gold ETFs into a corner. Who still believes that talk?

So think about it carefully—is Fink finally "facing reality," or has Wall Street finally found the right way to harvest the crypto market?