- Goldman Sachs has hired a head of digital assets who thinks that blockchain will revolutionize legacy baking systems
- Mathew McDermott says that blockchain could be king within 5-10 years and that that Goldman Sachs is looking at its own fiat token
- There is “a resurgence of interest in cryptocurrencies” among institutions
Goldman Sachs could be following in the footsteps of JPMorgan and developing their own digital fiat token according to the bank’s new global head of digital assets. Mathew McDermott, who took over the post last month, outlined his somewhat radical view of the future of finance with CNBC, stating his belief that blockchain could underpin “all assets and liabilities” in 5-10 years, and adding that Goldman Sachs was exploring the idea of its own digital token.
Blockchain Could Underpin “All Assets and Liabilities”
McDermott had been managing director of Goldman Sachs’ internal funding operations for almost 10 years and took over but took over as global head of digital assets in June, tasked with guiding the bank through the blockchain revolution. It seems that Goldman Sachs has hired the right man as McDermott is highly bullish on the potential of the technology to revolutionize legacy banking processes:
In the next five to 10 years, you could see a financial system where all assets and liabilities are native to a blockchain, with all transactions natively happening on chain. So what you’re doing today in the physical world, you just do digitally, creating huge efficiencies. And that can be debt issuances, securitization, loan origination; essentially you’ll have a digital financial markets ecosystem, the options are pretty vast.
Goldman Sachs Coin On The Horizon?
McDermott has seemingly hit the ground running, pinching JPMorgan’s head of digital assets strategy, Oli Harris, to plot how Goldman Sachs will best utilize the platform given to them by the rise of blockchain. Those plan could well include an internal digital fiat token in the mold of JPMorgan’s JPMCoin, although McDermott was cagey on its prospects:
We are exploring the commercial viability of creating our own fiat digital token, but it’s early days as we continue to work through the potential use cases.
McDermott also confirmed what cryptocurrency bulls have known since 2017 – Goldman Sachs isn’t the only big name already in the market:
We’ve definitely seen an uptick in interest across some of our institutional clients who are exploring how they can participate in this space. It definitely feels like there is a resurgence of interest in cryptocurrencies.
We couldn’t have said it better ourselves. To the moon, gentlemen.
