Earlier last week, The Wall Street Journal reported on a rumor that Goldman Sachs is considering putting together a new trading outfit for cryptocurrencies. Its CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, later tweeted that he was undecided on bitcoin as a currency, deftly skirting the issue. Of course, it's not necessary to "believe" in the bitcoin story to see that there's money to be made by trading it (and Goldman Sachs research covers bitcoin as an asset).
If true, however, this is more than just another example of Wall Street and bitcoin getting closer. First of all, Goldman Sachs would not be alone in putting financial weight behind bitcoin.
Fidelity Investments has been working on bitcoin-related projects for some time through its R&D arm Fidelity Labs, most recently unveiling a partnership with Coinbase to enable account holders to track their cryptocurrency holdings alongside more traditional assets.
Still, it would be the first Wall Street-based institutional trading desk for the asset.
The report does stress that Goldman may eventually pass on the project. Yet even if it does, it is indicative of an increasing acceptance in the upper echelons of finance that bitcoin is not going away, and that there is money to be made.
What's more, the strategy does fit in with Goldman's reputation as aggressive traders seeking high-risk, high-return turnover – more so than does its recent foray into retail banking.
And with market volatility at a five-year low (according to the leading index), it makes sense that the investment bank would look for a new opportunity to offset the recent slump – Q2 trading revenues were down 40 percent year-over-year.
Will other Wall Street giants follow? It's likely. Last week the CEO of Morgan Stanley stated that bitcoin was "more than just a fad."
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