Goldman Sachs continues to delve deeper into the cryptocurrency business as the rising price of BTC has caught the attention of high net worth clients. So, the US investment bank plans to offer the clients of its private wealth management group tools for investing in bitcoin.
Mary Rich, recently named Head of Global Digital Assets at Goldman, said the offering includes bitcoins and other digital assets. In the second quarter, wealthy clients are expected to gain access to “physical” BTC, financial derivatives or traditional investment products.
The move represents another major milestone in the massive utilization of an asset that has already made a giant leap forward in the past three months.
Goldman Sachs notes significant demand for digital assets from its clients, although the banking giant does not yet know how to satisfy this demand while remaining on the regulatory side.
The bank’s CEO said the team has been in talks with regulators and the Federal Reserve on how they can store digital assets and what the rules governing when dealing with virtual currencies are.
Goldman Sachs’ survey of digital assets clients found that 40% of high net worth clients surveyed currently have access to cryptocurrency. In addition, 54% of respondents predict that the price of bitcoin will range from $ 40,000 to $ 100,000.
While the rules for cryptocurrency in the US remain vague, the SEC has proposed time-limited simplified rules for crypto custodians acting as broker-dealers. They can own such assets in accordance with federal securities laws.
In February, Goldman Sachs re-formed its cryptocurrency trading department, which deals with Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forward contracts.
Mike Novogratz: «Bitcoin will inevitably exceed the capitalization of gold»
Billionaire and founder of crypto bank Galaxy Digital Mike Novogratz said in a comment to CNBC that the capitalization of the first cryptocurrency will inevitably reach and exceed the total market value of gold.
The investor is shocked by the pace of digital asset adoption. He also admitted his previous forecast for the price of the first cryptocurrency of $ 60,000 too conservative.
“Bitcoin is on an inevitable path to reaching and exceeding its gold capitalization ,” Novogratz said.
According to CompaniesMarketCap, the total market value of gold at the time of writing is $ 10.8 trillion . According to CoinGecko, the capitalization of the first cryptocurrency exceeds $ 1.1 trillion .
In early March, Novogratz predicted a rise in the price of bitcoin to $ 100,000 by the end of 2021, if other companies follow Tesla’s lead – the electric car maker revealed a $ 1.5 billion investment in digital gold.
At the end of March, popular cryptocurrency analyst Willie Wu called selling bitcoin «madness» right now. In his opinion, in 2021, the first cryptocurrency will face the final “explosive bull rally” for a three-year growth.
