Sharmin Mossavar Rahmani, chief investment officer at Goldman Sachs Wealth Management, said: wall street journal In an interview this week, she said that despite the recent hype around Bitcoin ETFs, her company doesn't buy into them.
“We don't believe in cryptocurrencies,” she said. “We don't think of it as an investment asset class.”
“How can you be bullish or bearish if you can't assign a value?” she added. At the heart of her disdain for cryptocurrencies is the difficult task of valuing them, as they do not generate income, dividends, or cash flow. journal report.
Having coached thousands of wealth advisors, clients, and traders over the past 23 years in her role at the prestigious investment bank, she says clients are aware of the firm's anti-crypto stance and are reluctant to invest in crypto. He told the newspaper that he is refraining from seeking legal advice. This space still remains despite Bitcoin reaching an all-time high of $73,737 last month, according to data from CoinGecko.
Mossavar Rahmani believes that cryptocurrencies are just a speculative investment and that there is no benefit to an unregulated market. “The rule of law and the system of checks and balances are important,” he said.
But Mossavar Rahmani's stance is at odds with other companies in the traditional financial industry, which are gradually incorporating cryptocurrencies into their products, with Goldman behind-the-scenes becoming increasingly involved in cryptocurrencies. This contradicts rumors that they may become friendly.
“Goldman Sachs may not have a strong view of Bitcoin or digital assets as a long-term investment in their portfolio, but they are certainly involved in the ecosystem from an infrastructure perspective,” said Managing Director said Matt Barenswijk, head of Go network at BitGo. Reference to the bank's digital asset research department.
Matthew McDermott, the bank's global head of digital assets, told Reuters in December that he expected trading volumes for blockchain-based assets to increase “significantly” within the next one to two years, and that virtual He said there has also been an increase in customer interest in trading currency derivatives.
“Regardless of how you look at it, big banks need to serve the needs of their customers, and we're seeing that play out now,” Valenswijk added.
another place on the street
Since the Securities and Exchange Commission approved 11 spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds in January, two of the trading products have been issued by well-known Wall Street asset managers: BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) and Fidelity's Wise Original Bitcoin Fund (FBTC). ).
Both funds lead the fiercely competitive Bitcoin ETF race because their issuers have access to mainstream investors and established customer bases, and as of Monday, BitMEX data shows both funds are leading the way in the fiercely competitive Bitcoin ETF race. To date, it has accumulated approximately $60 billion in assets under management. Of this, IBIT and FBTC have amassed over $10 billion with $17 billion each, the latter being his fastest ETF ever to reach this milestone.
Additionally, while Mosavar-Rahmani may publicly denounce investing in cryptocurrencies, a CoinDesk report in January revealed that Goldman Sachs is an accredited participant in the Grayscale and BlackRock ETFs (AP ), whose role includes creating and redeeming ETF shares to back the product. We conduct transactions in close coordination with the underlying assets.
Other Wall Street players are also stepping up to fill this role.
BlackRock's AP roster includes quantitative high-speed traders Jane Street and JPMorgan, according to SEC filings. Fellow ETF issuer Valkyrie is also partnering with Jane Street and Cantor Fitzgerald to serve as AP, a separate filing revealed.
Meanwhile, that same month, Nasdaq, CBOE, and NYSE Arca all filed 19b-4s seeking SEC approval to allow trading in related options, according to notices on their websites. In addition to this, CoinDesk reported in February that investment bank Morgan Stanley was considering adding a spot Bitcoin ETF to its securities platform. The Wall Street giant is said to be conducting due diligence on the product, according to people familiar with the matter. If approved, Morgan Stanley would be the first among large registered investment adviser (RIA) networks and broker-dealer platforms to list the ETF, accelerating inflows from the likes of Merrill Lynch and Wells Fargo. The floodgates could open.
“These networks and platforms are the addressable market for Bitcoin that ETFs were always meant to tap.” Bloomberg analyst James Seifert has already approved trading for some of these ETFs. We're aware of other major news agencies and advisor platforms,” said Bloomberg analyst James Seifert. luck. “Ultimately, I think most, if not all, platforms will approve these things.”
