BlackRock Crypto Leader Stays Bullish Despite Bitcoin’s Sharp Drop
Key Takes:
- Bitcoin dipped below $90,000 to around $86,000 in late November 2025, sparking market concerns.
- Robbie Mitchnick, who is in charge of BlackRock’s digital assets, said in an interview that the drop could be a chance for long-term investors to buy.
- He says that Bitcoin is not a payment system but “digital gold,” especially now that U.S. debt worries are growing.
Robbie Mitchnick, who is in charge of digital assets at BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, spoke up at the right time. His words give us a calm view of things when things are going wrong, and they remind us that dips like this have often led to rebounds.
Bitcoin’s price fell from highs of almost $100,000 earlier this month to below $86,000 by November 21, 2025, along with the rest of the crypto market. Network problems and big transfers from old exchanges were some of the things that made people more worried. But Mitchnick isn’t scared. He says that smart long-term holders see this as a “buying opportunity” because Bitcoin has been “written off for dead” many times in the past, only to come back stronger.
Mitchnick told podcaster Natalie Brunell that investors mostly see Bitcoin as a way to store value, like gold in the digital age. He said, “For thousands of years, only gold—and now Bitcoin—has been a global money alternative.” This happens as the U.S. government runs bigger budget deficits, which makes people look for things that will keep their value when money is printed.
IBIT, BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, has been very popular since it came out. Mitchnick said that most of the early money came from regular investors (about 80%), but now it’s evenly split between big institutions like hedge funds and pensions. Even when prices go down, demand stays high because Bitcoin is a hedge, not a risky bet on stocks.
He said that Bitcoin has not been very connected to traditional markets over time, so it is a good addition to portfolios at 1–2% levels. Gen Z and other younger people like it better than real gold because it’s easier to use—there are no borders, transfers are quick, and there isn’t much of it.
Mitchnick was clear: Most people don’t expect Bitcoin to become a common way to pay for things. That’s more like a “long-shot bonus.” Stablecoins are already winning there by handling things like moving money across borders. Bitcoin would need major tech upgrades, like better scaling, to be able to compete.
I think this makes sense objectively—Bitcoin’s strength is in how rare it is, not how fast it is. Some people worry that a recession could happen, which could make Bitcoin’s rise even stronger by showing how weak fiat is.
