Goldman Sachs will soon start trading bitcoin futures with its own moneyfor its clients, The New York Times reports.
In the next few weeks, the bank will begin to leverageits own capital totrade in a variety of investment contracts linked to Bitcoinon behalf of itsclients. The exact start date has not been set. It will also create and offerso-called non-deliverable forwards, a new and “more flexible” type ofderivative product.
Goldman Sachs has already received several requests from customers whowant to keep bitcoin as an alternative asset. Rana Yared, a Goldman Sachsexecutive, confirmed that the creation of the desk is largely in response toclient demand.
“It resonates with uswhen a client says, ‘I want tohold Bitcoin or Bitcoin futures because I thinkit is an alternate store ofvalue,’” she said.
Goldman Sachs has also brought in its first “digital asset” trader -Justin Schmidt joined the firm two weeks ago to serve as Vice President andHead of Digital Asset Markets in the firm's securities division, handling theday-to-day operations involving bitcoin.
Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein confirmed that the bank would beginclearing futures in Bitcoin for “some futures clients” earlier this year. Ms.Yared, however, said that that the bank has adopted a careful stance on thecryptocurrency - Goldman’s trading in actual Bitcoin would first need to beapproved by the Federal Reserve and New York authorities.
By Ekaterina Ulyanova