BlackRock executive says 1% crypto allocation across Asia could channel roughly $2 trillion into markets

Nicholas Peach, who leads iShares for Asia‑Pacific at BlackRock, told a Consensus Hong Kong panel that applying a modest, standardized 1% crypto allocation to Asia’s household wealth produces a back‑of‑the‑envelope demand figure that approaches $2 trillion. Peach used the region’s large wealth base as the arithmetic anchor and framed the number to show how small shifts in mainstream model portfolios can represent very large pools of potential capital for regulated crypto products. Other speakers at the conference reinforced the point but emphasized that product availability alone is not enough: regulators are sequencing permissions and building frameworks—Hong Kong’s SFC, for example, is moving to authorize more derivative structures and plans limited licensing for stablecoin issuers—which will channel activity into licensed venues and influence product design. Panelists highlighted parallel product innovation (spot ETFs, multi‑token indices, stablecoin‑rate futures and exchange‑grade perpetuals) and said these instruments give allocators familiar portfolio building blocks without requiring deep token‑level operational expertise. Market infrastructure firms, prime brokers and custodians are simultaneously developing connectivity between centralized venues and onchain liquidity, enabling hedge funds and managers to implement arbitrage, leverage and continuous market‑making strategies that were previously operationally difficult. Speakers warned that tokenization’s benefits scale only if technical primitives—throughput, predictable latency, finality—and custody‑integrated settlement rails support professional market‑making and delivery‑versus‑payment workflows; gaps here create both commercial opportunities and concentration risks. The practical pathway from theoretical allocations to realized flows thus runs through distribution (ETFs and advisory model inclusion), clearer regulation, and upgraded settlement/custody infrastructure. For asset managers, the commercial prize is significant: packaging regulated crypto exposure in ETF wrappers and folding it into advisor model portfolios could drive material AUM gains. For markets, even conservative adoption by advisers could deepen liquidity and change price dynamics, but that depth will be shaped by whether standardization—harmonized custody, margin and reporting—reduces fragmentation. The scenario carries trade‑offs: rapid, synchronized rollouts could mature market structure and compress trading costs; uneven regulatory approaches or infrastructure shortfalls could concentrate activity in a few cross‑border hubs and reintroduce fragility in new forms. Ultimately, the Consensus discussion framed Peach’s arithmetic as a warning and an invitation: substantial latent capital exists, but unlocking it at scale requires coordinated regulatory, product and infrastructure progress.