Investment banking major Goldman Sachs is planning to establish bitcoin trading operation, New York Times reported. If successful, it would be the first Bitcoin trading operation at a Wall Street bank, giving more legitimacy to cryptocurrencies.
Goldman Executive Rana Yared, who will oversee the operation, said to the news paper that the bank's view is that Bitcoin is not a fraud and does not have the characteristics of a currency. Meanwhile, some clients wanted to hold it as a valuable commodity, citing the limited quantity of Bitcoin that can ever be mined.
Earlier, reports had emerged that Goldman Sachs was building a cryptocurrency trading desk scheduled to be launched by the end of June, but its CEO Lloyd Blankfein had denied any such move.
Meanwhile, the bank reportedly made its first crypto-specific appointment recently with Justin Schmidt, a former cryptocurrency trader, aiming to explore options to create a bitcoin trading desk.
Goldman will not initially be buying and selling actual Bitcoins. The bank in the next few weeks would begin using its own money to trade Bitcoin futures contracts on behalf of clients.
The bank is said to have received inquiries from hedge funds, endowments, and foundations that received virtual currency donations, about handling them.
Goldman Sachs was one of the few major financial firms to clear Bitcoin futures offered by Cboe Global Markets Inc. and CME Group Inc. when it was launched in December.
Meanwhile, Goldman CEO Blankfein, in a November interview with CNBC, had said that maybe bitcoin is a kind of bubble, and that he is not comfortable with it.
Separately, British banking giant Barclays' CEO Jes Staley recently refuted rumors, saying the bank is not immediately launching a cryptocurrency trading desk, Financial News reported. Staley cited potential compliance and regulatory barriers as reasons but admitted to looking into cryptocurrency-related business opportunities.
Nasdaq Chief Executive Officer Adena Friedman revealed that the exchange operator was open to becoming a cryptocurrency exchange over time as the regulation smoothens and the crypto space gets matured.
Very recently, Business Insider Japan reported that Japanese banking giant SBI Holdings plans to launch its cryptocurrency exchange, SBI Virtual Currencies, in summer this year, perhaps the country's first wholly bank-owned crypto exchange.
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May 01, 2026 15:54 ET Central banks dominated the economics news flow this week with almost all major ones announcing their latest policy decisions and many boosted expectations for a rate hike in June. In other news, several countries released the preliminary data for first quarter economic growth. In the U.S., comments by Fed Chair Jerome Powell were also in focus as his term ends this month.