CNBC reports today that banking giant Goldman Sachs are aiming to offer investment options in bitcoin and other crypto assets during the second quarter of this year.
In an interview with CNBC, Mary Rich, the Global Head of Digital Assets for Goldman’s private wealth management division, said:
″We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near term,”
According to Ryan, Goldman is looking at ultimately offering a “full spectrum” of investments in bitcoin and digital assets, “whether that’s through the physical bitcoin, derivatives or traditional investment vehicles.”
“We’re still in the very nascent stages of this ecosystem; no one knows exactly how it will evolve or what shape it will be.“But I think it’s fairly safe to expect it will be part of our future,” she said.
With the announcement, two of the world’s preeminent investment banks now offer their clients access to a “new” asset class. Earlier this month, the news broke that Morgan Stanley clients can now get exposure to bitcoin funds starting April.
In the interview with CNBC, Rich further said:
“There’s a contingent of clients who are looking to this asset as a hedge against inflation, and the macro backdrop over the past year has certainly played into that. There are also a large contingent of clients who feel like we’re sitting at the dawn of a new Internet in some ways and are looking for ways to participate in this space.”
She concluded by saying that their offering will be similar to those of Morgan Stanley, but that they will also diversify to other ways that more resemble “the underlying asset class which trades 24-7 globally.”
March has clearly been a month in which Goldman Sachs have acted. In the beginning of the month, news came out that the group had reopened their Bitcoin trading desk and that it was exploring ETF traded funds. A few weeks later, document from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission revealed that the company had filed an application for ETF-linked notes.