Goldman Sachs has begun trading its Bitcoin derivative product for a “select small group of clients”, according to an unnamed source. In addition, it has been reported that the bank is exploring ways to custody cryptocurrencies for their clients.
While this isn’t a product like Bakkt, there is still a lot of value for institutional investors to gain exposure to the space without having to lose sleep over custody of the underlying asset.
There has been a lot of conflicting reports over the past year on whether the bank is entering the space or not, yet this is another piece in the puzzle proving they are making big moves.
This is an update of the past few months of reported activity:
Earlier, it was reported that Goldman Sachs and Mike Novogratz together have invested $15 million into custody service BitGo (about 20% of the total $70 million raised in BitGo).
In September the CFO, Martin Chavez, claimed that contrary to reports, the company was still pursuing their cryptocurrency trading desk. He also stated how they are interested in services that dealt with physical Bitcoin, calling it, “tremendously interesting.”
“Physical bitcoin is something tremendously interesting, and tremendously challenging. From the perspective of custody, we don’t yet see an institutional-grade custodial solution for Bitcoin, we’re interested in having that exist and it’s a long road.” -Martin Chavez, CFO of Goldman Sachs
Back in July, Goldman Sachs hired David Solomon to be CEO who is keen on cryptocurrency saying that the bank must “evolve its business and adapt to the environment.”
“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,” -David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs
