Good news for Bitcoin: Goldman Sachs Reopens Cryptocurrency Trading Desk, Citi and Fidelity Express Support
Source: The Wall Street Journal
Original Title: "Bitcoin Good News: Goldman Sachs Resumes Cryptocurrency Trading Desk, Citigroup and Fidelity Join In Succession"
Author: Wang Chao
Goldman Sachs has resumed its cryptocurrency trading desk and will start offering clients Bitcoin futures and non-deliverable forward (NDF) contracts trading from next week.
According to reports, this team is part of the bank's global markets division. This division was established by Goldman Sachs to respond to the rapidly growing activities in the digital asset space. Currently, the bank is also exploring the possibility of Bitcoin exchange-traded funds and has issued requests for information on exploring digital asset custody.
Currently, institutions including CME Group, Intercontinental Exchange, and Fidelity have already begun offering products and services related to cryptocurrency.
Jurrien Timmer, Fidelity's Global Macro Director, stated that Bitcoin has a compelling supply-demand dynamic. He believes that the current market value of Bitcoin is only $900 billion, and given gold's $11 trillion asset value and the global $160 trillion financial asset total, this cryptocurrency still has significant room for growth.
Timmer said: "If Bitcoin is a legitimate store of value, scarcer than gold, and has potential for changing index demand dynamics, is it now worth considering including it in the portfolio?" He said the question might no longer be "whether" but "how much."
Citigroup previously released a report of over 100 pages, stating that with the increasing enthusiasm for Bitcoin from companies like Tesla and PayPal, and various central banks also exploring issuing their own digital currencies, Bitcoin is currently at a "tipping point" and may one day become the preferred currency for international trade.
Citigroup believes that with both retail and institutional investors embracing cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, a trend favorable to Bitcoin but unfavorable to gold has emerged, and this trend is becoming harder to ignore. Citigroup also pointed out that the biggest risk for digital currencies is changes in regulatory policies; if regulations tighten, some speculative funds will return to the gold market.
Goldman Sachs first established a cryptocurrency trading desk as early as 2018, but at that time, the Bitcoin price was plummeting from its all-time high, dampening investor interest in digital currencies.
Cryptocurrency was previously shunned by elite companies like Goldman Sachs, but it is now gaining trust, and other banks and financial institutions also have related business plans. Bank of New York Mellon announced in mid-February that it will hold, transfer, and issue digital currencies, calling it the first global bank to offer such services to clients. Mastercard also stated that it will allow cardholders to transact in cryptocurrency on its network. The company said last month that it is "actively engaging" in global central bank digital currency plans.
As Goldman Sachs restarts its cryptocurrency trading desk, digital assets have seen a meteoric rise in the past few months. The price of Bitcoin has surged over 5x in the past year, with investors like Paul Tudor Jones, Stan Druckenmiller, and Elon Musk rushing to get in. Musk's Tesla announced in February that it had purchased $1.5 billion in Bitcoin.
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