Goldman Sachs Exploring More Crypto Trading Services

Jun 21 2018

The growing popularity of digital assets has led Goldman Sachs, one of US' leading investment banks, to slowly change its stance towards cryptocurrencies from negative to positive, over the years.  The firm has now confirmed that it is exploring more cryptocurrency trading activities beyond bitcoin futures. The firm already helps its clients deal in publicly-traded derivatives tied to bitcoin known as futures.

David Solomon, Chief Operating Officer (COO), Goldman Sachs said to Bloomberg in an interview:

“We are clearing some futures around Bitcoin, talking about doing some other activities there, but it’s going very cautiously. We’re listening to our clients and trying to help our clients as they’re exploring those things too.”

This, however, comes at a time when cryptocurrency market has been seeing a decline.

Goldman Sachs has been having flip-flop opinions on cryptocurrencies - from unwilling to accept Bitcoins as a currency to stating that most cryptocurrencies might fail with their value falling to zero to finally accepting them. "We must evolve the business and adapt to the environment,” Solomon added. It means the firm could offer more digital currency products.

The firm's Chairman and CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, also thinks it would be hard to ignore cryptocurrencies in the coming years. He recently admitted that it would be unwise to dismiss cryptocurrencies entirely as the possible evolution of money from fiat to crypto might make sense in the future. He had earlier also stated that the rise in cryptocurrency could be similar to that of cell phones and it cannot be ruled out that cryptocurrencies could one day become established assets.

Last month, Goldman Sachs also confirmed the launch of a cryptocurrency desk. It would be interesting to see what all new crypto trading products and services the firm would offer in the near future.

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