Larry 'hodl' Fink: BlackRock CEO Banks $37.7M as Bitcoin ETFs Print $193M in Fees

Larry Fink is closing out 2025 with significantly more zeros in his compensation package, and Bitcoin ETFs had a lot to do with it. The man who once called Bitcoin "an index of money laundering" has apparently found a more respectable use for it: funding his own bonus.

BlackRock raised the CEO's total pay to $37.7 million for 2025—a roughly 23% bump from the prior year. The package breaks down to a $1.5 million base salary, a $10.6 million cash bonus, and roughly $24.6 million in stock awards. The equity component drove most of the increase, climbing by about $6.5 million from 2024. That's a whole lot of RSUs to compensate for the existential dread of managing $14 trillion.

The iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF (IBIT) quietly became one of BlackRock's best-performing revenue generators. The fund collected approximately $174.6 million in net sponsor fees for 2025, up from $47.5 million during its 2024 launch year. The iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) chipped in another $18.4 million. Combined, both crypto products generated roughly $193 million in fees. Not bad for assets that still make half the finance industry nervous.

That figure remains a tiny fraction of BlackRock's total 2025 revenue of $24.2 billion, but it's one of the fastest-growing lines in the firm's history. IBIT also surpassed $100 billion in assets during the year, making it one of the fastest ETFs ever to hit that milestone. Move over, boring index funds—there's a new sheriff in town, and it runs on electricity and memes.

Fink has publicly suggested digital assets could eventually become a $500 million annual revenue source for the firm. "Private markets for insurance, private markets for wealth, digital assets, and active ETFs. We believe all of these could become $500 million revenue sources over the next five years," he wrote in a recent note. One hundred ninety-three million down, three hundred seven million to go. Larry's got a roadmap and he's sticking to it.

Bitcoin alone didn't drive the full pay increase. BlackRock ended 2025 with a record $14 trillion in assets under management, fueled by $698 billion in full-year net inflows. The firm also beat Wall Street profit estimates in Q4, posting $2.18 billion in net income excluding one-time charges.