Goldman Sachs Keeps Criticizing Bitcoin, But There Are Certain Ties
Going back as far as 2014, when interest in
Bitcoin was a mere drop of what it is today, Wall Street giants
Goldman Sachs were already scoffing at the digital currency and the interest it was developing.
Goldman has been slowly coming around though, for one of the Wall Street powerhouses, with their CEO, Lloyd Blankfein, happy to talk and mull the potential of Bitcoin and Blockchain. However, the bank has not yet delivered directly into Bitcoin. But, the latest move by mobile payment app Circle to acquire a rather large crypto trading exchange, Poloniex, could see Goldman getting more involved because of their $50 mln investment in the Circle.
Circle’s game planMobile trading apps entering the waters of cryptocurrency is nothing new. The latest example is
RobinHood, which has made the headlines recently with its decision to support crypto trading, but with zero-fees.
Circle announced in the past few days that it had acquired Poloniex, in what it called an extension of “its commitment to a new vision for global finance.” The goal for Circle with this acquisition, according to their announcement, is to create “an open global token marketplace.” This will be done through one of the three branches that makes up Circle, called
Circle Invest, with its tag line being “crypto without the cryptic.”
On Poloniex’s side, the company which has been fraught with customer support and scaling issues welcomed the partnership. They announced:
“To bringing Circle's experience to increase the scalability and reliability of our platform and operations. User experience is paramount. If we aspire to build a token marketplace that will change the fundamentals of global value exchange, we cannot settle for anything less than excellence in our product.”
Clearly, it’s positive for both platforms when the traditional mobile payment app heads into cryptocurrency and aids with its mainstream development. And on the other hand, this is a positive move for the cryptomarket as it allows easier access to those who have not ventured in already. However, the underlying benefactor of all this could well be a Wall Street Bank, so often touted as the enemy of the decentralized finance system that is steadily becoming a force to be reckoned with.
Ties to Goldman Sachs
Through Goldman’s history with Bitcoin, the bank has gone from denouncing it to proclaiming it cannot be ignored, to mulling its potential over, to investing in Blockchain, and finally being rumored to be opening their own trading desk. The trading desk rumors were refuted by Goldman Sachs as they look to be stopping just short of getting their hands dirty with cryptocurrencies directly.
Goldman Sachs has been building their relationship with Circle since 2013 when Michele Burns, a board member at Goldman Sachs joined the board at Jeremy Allaire’s startup, Circle. From there, Goldman showed its appreciation of the global vision that Circle was proclaiming and put its money where its mouth is by investing $50 mln into the Boston-based company in May 2015.
Managing Director Tom Jessop, who heads the firm’s Principal Strategic Investments Group to focus on strategic investments within the financial technology industry, said back then:
“We think that Circle’s product vision and exceptional management team present a compelling opportunity in the digital payments space.”
This seems to be a move by the Wall Street Bank to get its fingers in the crypto pie without getting delving fully into the crypto trading business. It has a large investment in a company which has acquired a cryptocurrency exchange. Regulators have reacted well to this acquisition with a leaked document showing that the SEC is happy to ease off on some of its charges against Poloniex.
Full:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/goldman-sachs-keeps-criticizing-bitcoin-but-there-are-certain-ties
