Goldman Sachs does a ‘revolutionary’; to start bitcoin trading unit

Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest financial institutions in the US, is set to launch a bitcoin trading counter, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, May 2.

According to NYT, the investment banking giant was preparing to start using its own funds to promote a variety of investment contracts linked to the bitcoin price and harboured the hope of trading "physical bitcoins" directly one day.

This decision by Goldman Sachs could be a trend-setter in the financial world where bitcoin - a virtual currency - is still being avoided by banks and seen with suspicion.

Goldman Sachs was reportedly planning to set up a cryptocurrency trading unit since December 2017 through its inner sources continued to say that such reports were untrue, a CCN report said.

Even on April 23, when the bank took on board cryptocurrency trader Justin Schmidt - it said that no decision was yet taken over the scope of its "digital asset offering", the report added.

Less than a fortnight since then, the bank confirmed setting up its bitcoin desk.

It was also told on behalf of Goldman Sachs that although scepticism still ruled the roost about the cryptocurrency, yet there was enough interest shown from the hedge funds and other investors which made its directors go ahead with the decision.

Goldman Sachs, which will become the first major US bank to use its own funds to trade cryptocurrencies, hopes to get approval from the Federal Reserve and other state-level bodies to kick off its operations featuring bitcoins, the CCN report said.