Global investment bank Goldman Sachs has brought back its bitcoin trading desk and will start handling bitcoin futures next week. The firm is also reportedly exploring the potential for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund (ETF) and plans to provide a crypto custody service.
- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. has restarted its cryptocurrency trading desk, Reuters reported Monday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Goldman first set up a cryptocurrency desk in 2018, after a bull run as the price of bitcoin was falling from record highs, muting investor interest in the cryptocurrency.
- The desk will “begin dealing bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards for clients from next week,” the publication conveyed. It will also take on projects involving blockchain technology and central bank digital currencies (CBDCs).
- The crypto desk will be within Goldman Sachs’ global markets division and will serve as a market-maker, buying and selling on behalf of clients but not actively managing cryptocurrencies itself, according to Forbes.
- “The bank is also exploring the potential for a bitcoin exchange-traded fund and has issued a request for information to explore digital asset custody,” the source detailed. Currently, North America has two bitcoin ETFs, recently approved in Canada.
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- As bitcoin continues to outperform other assets, more companies are seeking to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency. For example, the Nasdaq-listed Microstrategy announced Monday that “it had purchased approximately 328 bitcoins for $15.0 million in cash” and “now holds approximately 90,859 bitcoins.” Moreover, 42 companies now collectively hold more than $65 billion worth of bitcoin.
- The price of bitcoin has risen about 56% since the beginning of the year, currently standing at $48,677, based on data from markets.Bitcoin.com. Former Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein recently warned, “If I were a regulator, I would be kind of hyperventilating at the success of it [bitcoin].” Meanwhile, Goldman’s current global head of commodities research, Jeff Currie, said that the bitcoin market “is beginning to become more mature,” calling the cryptocurrency “a retail inflation hedge.”
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