The world’s leading investment bank, Goldman Sachs Group Inc, has begun a crypto trading desk that will be handling bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards on behalf of its customers.
In a report credited to Reuters, it was revealed that the elite investment team will be positioned under the U.S. bank’s Global Markets division.
The desk is part of the investment bank’s fast-growing crypto-assets sector, which also includes projects involving central bank digital currencies and blockchain technology.
Goldman Sachs is also exploring the creation of a bitcoin exchange-traded fund and has issued a request for information to explore such a crypto service.
What you should know: The $119 billion valued investment bank is one of the world’s most elite investment bank, headquartered in New York and known to offer a broad range of financial services across investment trading, banking, securities, and lately consumer banking to a large and diversified client base.
This comes as no surprise, as highly respected business leader, Michael Saylor had earlier revealed that top representatives from about 7,000 companies attended MicroStrategy’s recent Bitcoin seminar, which the leading business intelligence company organized to aid companies interested in buying Bitcoin as a treasury asset.
“We had people from SpaceX there. We had people [from] some of Elon Musk’s companies. We had people from Marathon there.
“The ones you would expect were there, but of course, there’s an avalanche of private companies, and there were a decent number of public companies and treasurers and CFOs that were lurking.
“Some don’t want to have their names mentioned, as you can imagine, because it’s a sensitive topic,” Saylor said.
However, a significant number of traditional finance experts are not buying into the flagship crypto’s bullish run, as they see little value in the digital currency on the account that they believe Bitcoin, and other leading cryptos are just part of a larger speculative bubble.
At press time, Bitcoin traded at $49,026.27 with a daily trading volume of $54.6 Billion. Bitcoin is up 5.52% for the day.
The flagship crypto-asset, Bitcoin surged past a one-week high as risk appetite in markets gained momentum despite growing concerns facing the crypto industry.
At the time of writing this report, Bitcoin traded above $51,508.78 with a daily trading volume of $51.7 billion. Bitcoin is up 4.83% for the day.
The world’s most popular crypto asset had been under pressure, particularly on Tuesday when Gary Gensler, nominee for chairman of the U.S. SEC disclosed that protecting investors against the crypto market’s manipulation and illicit activity is a challenge for the agency.
Institutional investors are perceived to be driving Bitcoin’s bullish record-setting run. Amongst them; Anthony Scaramucci’s Skybridge Capital, Mass Mutual, and Guggenheim (up to 10% of its $5 billion macro funds).
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Bitcoin is fired up on all cylinders, smashing its past record highs at the speed of light, and it seems the momentum trade is strengthening as mass media outlets embrace crypto coverage, on the bias that the flagship crypto rallied to an all-time high today, as it broke above the $51,000 level.
Also, the flagship crypto is on its record high amid strong purchases seen in accredited investors gaining more exposure to Bitcoin through the world’s biggest crypto hedge fund, Grayscale, and the CME Bitcoin futures market.
Google, the world’s most powerful and valuable search engine, recently added selected cryptos to its finance platform.
Alongside leading financial markets, particularly in emerged markets, the trillion-dollar company added a “Crypto” section thereby giving Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash more limelight.
This comes as no surprise to many market watchers, as the leading tech brand incorporating cryptos on its finance page follows a long wave in mainstream approval over the past months.
There is no doubt, 2021 continues to shape up as a very exciting year for crypto assets relatively.
The flagship crypto has gotten more credibility in recent days from blue-chip companies like Mastercard and America’s oldest bank, BNY Mellon showing support for Bitcoin.
Mastercard had earlier disclosed it would open up its network to some cryptocurrencies including Bitcoin.
PayPal and the world’s largest asset fund manager BlackRock have also made big moves to support crypto.
Investments from Square, Paul Tudor Jones, MassMutual, and SkyBridge Capital are further indisputable evidence of big money investors in the flagship crypto market.
Recall some months ago, as the fastest ever-changing financial asset continued to gain traction, renowned financial data media company, Bloomberg Intelligence, gave critical insights on why bitcoin, in just about five years’ time, could hit a valuation of $100,000.
“Bitcoin’s foundation is firming for further price advances if its history is a guide. Since initially reaching $10,000 in 2017, the benchmark crypto corrected about 70% and remains in an extended period of consolidation around that level.”
“It would be recalled that in 2013, Bitcoin was trading barely at a price of about a thousand dollars. It corrected about 80% and consolidated in 2017, after initially reaching $1,000, it added a zero.
“Considering normal maturation, about double the time frame from $1,000 to $10,000 would come in around 2025, for Bitcoin to potentially add another zero.”
