Goldman Sachs Is Not Starting A Crypto Trading Desk, But They Did Invest In One

Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, refuted the Bloomberg report that Goldman Sachs will be opening a crypto trading desk in an interview with CNBC, although the New York bank has owned a stake in a crypto trading desk since 2015.

In 2015, Goldman Sachs’ principal investment strategy group, which invests specifically in technology companies, participated in a $50 mln funding round with Bitcoin-startup Circle Internet Financial.

The deal closed on April 29, 2015, when Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at around $225.59, according to CoinMarketCap. By press time, BTC was trading around $10,040, about a 4400 percent increase from when Goldman Sachs invested in the Bitcoin-startup.

Circle is made up of Circle Pay, which is a fiat money sending services with a social messaging component, but also Circle Trade, which is a liquidity provider of cryptocurrencies. The company plans to open Circle Invest in 2018, a product designed for retail customers to more easily invest in crypto markets.

Goldman Sachs only recently released a report that referred to digital currencies as real money, in reference specifically to its use in developing economies. Previously, in November 2017, Blankfein had said that while he believes that Bitcoin will probably not work out in the long term, he’s open to the idea of BTC trading if it ever becomes more established as a currency.