Goldman (GS) Reopens Cryptocurrency Desk as Bitcoins Surge

GS BK NTRS SCBFF

The Goldman Sachs Group (GS - Free Report) has reopened the trading desk for cryptocurrencies and seeks to provide Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forwards as soon as next week. The news was first reported by Reuters.

Previously, in 2018, the company had launched this service, but abandoned plans before the end of year due to regulatory concerns. At the time, Goldman’s executives had said that more steps were required to be executed, some of which outside their control, for a regulated institution to be allowed to trade cryptocurrencies.

Presently, Goldman plans to house the digital assets team within its Global Markets division, the article said. Also, Reuters reported that Goldman is inquiring into the potential for a bitcoin exchange traded fund and has issued a request for information to explore digital asset custody.

Notably, the company is marking re-entry into Bitcoins, on account of growing interests of other companies in cryptocurrency market, and more than 470% surge in Bitcoin prices in the past year.

Earlier in February, The Bank of New York Mellon (BK - Free Report) took a step forward in providing an integrated service for digital assets and announced plans of holding, transferring and issuing bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies on behalf of its institutional clients.

In December 2020, Northern Trust (NTRS - Free Report) in partnership with Standard Chartered’s (SCBFF - Free Report) innovation and ventures unit, SC Ventures, announced plans to introduce an institutional-grade custodian for cryptocurrencies — Zodia Custody. The custodian is expected to start operating in London later in 2021.

Digital currencies have become even more popular of late after Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, expressed his interest in the same. Earlier this year, Tesla revealed that it purchased $1.5 billion worth of bitcoin for “more flexibility to further diversify and maximize returns on our cash.”

The stock has rallied 57.1% over the past six months, compared with the growth of 58.3% of the industry it belongs to.

Goldman currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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