According to a report from Business Insider, Goldman Sachs is postponing its previous plans to open up a cryptocurrency trading desk, due to regulatory uncertainty.
With the intent of setting up a cryptocurrency trading platform, Goldman Sachs has been examining the global market and governing environment for a long time, conclusively, deciding that the cryptocurrency zone is still too immature for an institutional entrance.
The earlier news reports had fed into the belief among industry participants that the Goldman would soon start its own cryptocurrency trading platform by the end of summer.
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And yet, it's run into a regulatory roadblock. The bank was looking for some regulatory changes that have yet to materialize and would have protected banks like Goldman from some of the risks unique to trading cryptocurrencies," one of the executives said to
Business Insider
Although the multinational investment bank has postponed a Bitcoin trading desk, Goldman Sachs already offers Bitcoin futures trading for clients and is focusing on offering a custody product for crypto for its large institutional clients.
"In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space," a company spokesman told Bloomberg. "At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering."
Goldman Sachs, for now, is focusing on custody product for the cryptocurrency. The custodial service means that the bank holds cryptocurrency and, likely, keeps track of price changes on behalf of large fund customers. Market people believe that for large firms to get comfortable trading bitcoin, there need to be reputable custody offerings to safeguard holdings. A custodial service from an institution like Goldman Sachs will provide a credible backing for crypto funds.
Goldman will compete with other firms like Coinbase and BitGo, in offering custody services. Coinbase has already launched its own custodial service for institutional clients, called Coinbase Custody. In the meantime, Fidelity, Nomura, and JPMorgan are also exploring similar offerings.