Goldman Sachs to Open Bitcoin Offerings for Its Wealth Management Clients While BlackRock Dabbles In BTC Futures

Almost every big financial institutions is getting associated with Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in one or the other way. On Wednesday, March 31st, Wall Street banking giant Goldman Sachs said that is close to offering Bitcoin and crypto investment options to its wealth management clients.

Mary Rich, Goldman’s global head of digital assets for private wealth management division, told CNBC that the bank is planning to start offering this facility in Q2 2021.

″We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near term,” Rich said spring her interview.

Eventually, Goldman is looking to offer its clients a “full spectrum” of investments in BTC and other cryptocurrencies,“whether that’s through the physical bitcoin, derivatives or traditional investment vehicles,” added Rich.

However, Goldman Sachs is not the first Wall Street giant to make such a move. Last month, banking giant Morgan Stanley also said that it is willing to offer Bitcoin funds exposure to its clients.

So far, these banking giants have shunned Bitcoin multiple times in the past. However, it seems that BTC has ultimately triumphed in the financial space proving its mettle in the market. Bitcoin’s phenomenal price rally over the last year and the growing uncertainly in global macros has forced financial institutions to step into the Bitcoin game.

Goldman’s Mary Rich acknowledged that the recent decision to offer Bitcoin and crypto investment options come on the backdrop of a massive demand from its institutional clients.

However Goldman’s private wealth management business targets investors with a minimum ticket size of $25 million. Rich said: “There’s a contingent of clients who are looking to this asset as a hedge against inflation, and the macro backdrop over the past year has certainly played into that. There are also a large contingent of clients who feel like we’re sitting at the dawn of a new Internet in some ways and are looking for ways to participate in this space.”

As per people familiar with the matter, Goldman is currently working on securing approval from the SEC and NYDFS for offering its services. “We’re still in the very nascent stages of this ecosystem; no one knows exactly how it will evolve or what shape it will be,” Rich said. “But I think it’s fairly safe to expect it will be part of our future.”

On the other hand, world’s largest asset management institutional giant BlackRock has started to dabble into Bitcoin. As per the SEC filing, BlackRock bought 37 contracts of the CME Bitcoin Futures back in January 21, and registered $360K in gains during the March expiry. Although BlackRock’s Bitcoin exposure is just 0.001% of its total assets under management what is important is that financial heavyweights can no longer afford to keep themselves away from BTC.