Sources: Goldman Sachs is setting up a cryptocurrency trading desk and expects it to be running by June 2018
The business may be running by the end of June, two people say — CEO Blankfein has said the firm is mulling a bitcoin strategy — At least one of Wall Street's biggest firms …
Context & Ripple Effects
Goldman Sachs has spent 2017 circling bitcoin without committing: CEO Lloyd Blankfein has said publicly that the firm is mulling a bitcoin strategy, and this report is the first sign that deliberation is turning into infrastructure — an actual trading desk with a June 2018 target date. The description notes at least one of Wall Street's biggest firms is moving, which would make Goldman the first of its tier to staff up for crypto.
The later coverage shows how contested this bet was: Goldman did open a Bitcoin trading operation in mid-2018 using its own money on client futures trades per the New York Times, then shelved the desk within months citing an unclear regulatory framework as Reuters reported, before restarting it during the 2021 boom Reuters reported. This December 2017 report is the origin point of that stop-start arc.
First-order effects
- Goldman Sachs clients gain a regulated counterparty for bitcoin futures exposure, moving crypto trading from offshore exchanges toward a Wall Street balance sheet for the first time among tier-one firms.
Second-order effects
- Rival bulge-bracket banks face pressure to match the desk or cede institutional crypto flow to Goldman, while the September 2018 retreat over regulatory uncertainty shows any competitor copying the move inherits the same compliance exposure.
Third-order effects
- The enter-shelve-restart cycle ends with Goldman treating bitcoin as ordinary collateral — by 2022 it extended cash loans against Bitcoin holdings — suggesting crypto desks at major banks evolve from speculative bets into standing product lines that expand and contract with each market cycle.
The trend: Wall Street's engagement with crypto is cyclical rather than linear, with tier-one banks building trading and lending infrastructure during booms and retreating when regulation or prices turn.