- A Goldman Sachs crypto desk could be on the cards again
- The bank has had plans to launch a crypto desk on and off for three years
- Reuters says that bank will offer Bitcoin futures and “non-deliverable forwards”
Goldman Sachs may finally open a cryptocurrency trading desk more than three years after the plans were first mooted. Reuters yesterday cited “someone familiar with the matter” as saying that a Goldman Sachs crypto desk will open next week starting with Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards. Rumors of such a venture first spiked during the bull run of 2017, but three years’ worth of denials and allegations of fake news left the fate of the project in limbo. Now it seems however that the bank feels the time is right to try again.
Goldman Sachs Crypto Desk In The Works Since 2017
Talk of a Goldman Sachs crypto desk first emerged at the end of 2017, right when Bitcoin was topping out at $20,000. The news proved to be peak euphoria, and the market started its lengthy downturn just a week later. By May 2018 the desk still wasn’t open for business, and reports emerged that the Goldman Sachs crypto desk was starting to look very different than an all singing, all dancing crypto trading desk:
The bank…will trade Bitcoin futures in a principal, market-making capacity and will also create non-deliverable forward products.
Sounds familiar. However, it was claimed four months later that Goldman Sachs had canned its trading desk entirely, although this was labeled “fake news” by the bank’s Chief Financial Officer Martin Chavez.
The Time Has Finally Come – Perhaps
Confusingly however, in April 2019, CEO David Solomon told the United States House of Representatives Financial Services Committee that the bank “never had plans to open a cryptocurrency trading desk”, although he didn’t rule out the possibility down the line.
That line seems to have been arrived at, if Reuters’ source is to be believed, and the crypto community will be hoping that the introduction of a Goldman Sachs crypto desk won’t spell the end of the market once again:
Us old-timers have learned that whenever @GoldmanSachs enters a market niche it is time to guard your money. $BTC pic.twitter.com/tHfRkS4igb
— Peter Brandt (@PeterLBrandt) March 1, 2021
