News

Wall Street remains cool on bitcoin

December 27, 2018

Wall Street businesses Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others are not embracing bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies, despite some initial interest and activity. Goldman Sachs, for example, did approve of bitcoin futures and even offered derivatives on bitcoin. The bank, however, has not offered any bitcoin trading, according to a report by Bloomberg.

The drop in bitcoin's value from around $20,000 at the end of 2017 to around $4,000 is one reason why Wall Street is remaining cool on bitcoin, according to the report.

Other financial institutions have not taken major steps to offer or trade bitcoin. Morgan Stanley hired Andrew Peel as head of digital assets earlier in 2018 and was prepared to offer "swaps tracking bitcoin futures," but has yet to do so, according to the report.

Barclays started a crypto trading desk, but both members of the desk have since left the bank. Citigroup Inc. did create products for cryptocurrencies for trading by proxy without direct ownership of coins, but it has not performed any trading.

Bitcoin enthusiasts pointed out that the infrastructure is being laid in place so the institutions can jump back in at any moment, according to the report.

"The more important story is all the infrastructure that's being built now to enable institutional trading," Ben Sebley, head of brokerage at NKB Group, said in the report.