The inside source made assertions that Goldman Sachs is avoiding cryptocurrency brokerage services which are currently being provided by a number of US-based cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase, and Gemini amongst others.
American multinational investment bank and financial services company Goldman Sachs Group Inc (NYSE: GS) is reportedly planning an entry into the cryptocurrency ecosystem through the offering of cryptocurrency custody service. According to a report by Coindesk, citing sources familiar with the matter, Goldman Sachs has issued a request for information (RFI) to explore digital asset custody and the bank’s plans will be made “evident soon.”The cryptocurrency ecosystem is an emerging market that the big players in the financial ecosystem are looking at exploring. While many institutions that Goldman Sachs and other investment banks are managing assets for are reportedly buying up or planning to buy up Bitcoin and altcoins to safeguard their balance sheets, the provision of custody services will position the banks to tag along with these developments.The move to provide custody services is already backed by the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) who had rolled out a policy permitting US federal banks to carry out crypto custody services. According to the Goldman Sachs source, the request for information was circulated to at least one renowned crypto custody service provider at the tail end of last year.“Like JPMorgan, we have issued an RFI looking at digital custody. We are broadly exploring digital custody and deciding what the next step is,” said the Goldman source, who asked not to be named.Goldman Sachs Avoiding Competition in Its Crypto PursuitThe inside source made assertions that Goldman Sachs is avoiding cryptocurrency brokerage services which are currently being provided by a number of US-based cryptocurrency exchanges including Coinbase, and Gemini amongst others.“Anchorage, BitGo, and Coinbase have quite grand plans in crypto prime brokerage and we would not be looking to duplicate those,” the Goldman source confirmed.The adoption of cryptocurrencies is going mainstream and banks which adapt their model to offer cryptocurrency-related services will be better for it in the long run. The rate of embrace is rapid and even more attractive this year seeing that the value of Bitcoin in terms of the price per coin is trading at its all-time highs, a development that has pushed the market capitalization of the global crypto industry above $1 trillion.The push by the banks will also start yielding dividends in due course seeing that provincial governments are beginning to take interest in Bitcoin. According to Fox Business News, Francis Suarez, the Mayor of Miami revealed plans to provide a broad city-wide embrace for Bitcoin and the possibility of investing government funds in cryptocurrency. Moves like this show that the market prospect for the proposed crypto custody services by Goldman Sachs is promising.
