Goldman Sachs — Bitcoin

People usually look to big players to make the first move and then they follow. With this in mind, Goldman Sachs’ decision of not pursuing a cryptocurrency trading desk for the foreseeablefuture dropped the market by $12bn. Or has it?

Financial institutions face the problem that centralised exchanges are vulnerable to hacks. This makes it difficult for banks to look after assets and at the same time keep regulators happy. This regulatory uncertainty with regards to this asset class is putting Goldman Sachs off.

If Goldman Sachs had established a trading office, it would certainly add to the legitimacy of cryptos and even help them go mainstream, but on the other hand Goldman Sachs was not into the crypto trading up to now and everything was still functioning.

It could be the case that the market drop was a consequence of a sell pressure build up on Bitcoin and coupled with low volume, it caused a domino effect. This would imply that Goldman Sachs news or fake news, as stated later by Goldman Sachs CFO on September 6th,was irrelevant or merely part of the equation.

It is easier, and in our nature as human beings to blame what we can easily understand, but perhaps there is a bigger picture.

In summary, a $12bn drop might have been an overreaction but maybe an opportunity for others as well to get in the game. Who is to blame is a far more difficult question and I would direct you to Cointelegraph for an interesting article and more information.

One thing is certain, the crypto space is an exciting environment to be in.