Despite the increasing acceptance of cryptocurrency as an asset class by many traditional financial institutions, Goldman Sachs remains skeptical about Bitcoin (BTC).
In a recent interview with the Wall Street Journal, the bank’s chief investment officer, Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, stated that Bitcoin is not considered an investment asset class and that the bank does not believe in cryptocurrencies. Mossavar-Rahmani questioned the value of Bitcoin:
If you cannot assign a value, then how can you be bullish or bearish?
Mossavar-Rahmani also stated that customers have not expressed interest in crypto. The bank officially launched its crypto trading desk in 2021 and has been facilitating various Bitcoin-linked trades, including Bitcoin non-deliverable futures and CME BTC futures. Still, the bank does not interact with the cryptocurrencies directly.
Max Minton, Goldman’s Asia Pacific head of digital assets, noted in an interview that the recent approval of ETFs has reignited interest and activity among the bank’s clients. Many clients are either currently active in the crypto space or are considering entering it, with a noticeable increase in client interest, onboarding, pipeline, and trading volume since the beginning of the year.
Despite Mossavar-Rahmani’s public skepticism, Goldman Sachs has been quietly dabbling in the cryptocurrency market. In 2021, it was reported that the bank, along with ICAP, JPMorgan, and UBS, had bought the first exchange-traded product (ETP) in Europe that offered exposure to Polkadot’s DOT cryptocurrency for clients.
The report follows Bitcoin recently soaring past $71,000 for the first time in history following an approval for crypto exchange-traded products by the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority.
The recent updraft that took Bitcoin’s price higher and higher took hold after the U.S.’s approval of spot Bitcoin spot exchange-traded funds (ETFs) back in January, propelling the cryptocurrency to breach the $70,000 mark last week for the first time. Similarly, Ethereum (ETH) surpassed the $4,000 milestone on Monday. Now companies are looking to do the same with Ethereum.
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