Goldman Sachs To Expands Cryptocurrency Trading Desk With Ether Futures and Options

Goldman Sachs’ head of digital assets, Mathew McDermott, has reportedly revealed that the global investment bank plans to offer futures and options trading in ether (ETH) in the coming months, Bloomberg reported Monday.

McDermott said in a phone interview with the publication Thursday: “We’ve actually seen a lot of interest from clients who are eager to trade as they find these levels as a slightly more palatable entry point. We see it as a cleansing exercise to reduce some of the leverage and the excess in the system, especially from a retail perspective.”

The executive additionally said that Goldman Sachs plans to offer the trading of bitcoin exchange-traded notes.

Goldman Sachs formally established a cryptocurrency trading team in early May after seeing huge institutional demand for cryptocurrency. The investment bank also recently said that bitcoin is now a new asset class.

In May, the firm led the $15 million investment into crypto data provider Coin Metrics. McDermott added, “We are looking at a number of different companies that fit into our strategic direction.”

Goldman Sachs has said on several occasions that institutional interest in bitcoin has been growing significantly. In a survey of 850 institutions last week, the bank found that almost one in 10 respondents are trading cryptocurrencies and 20 percent are interested in the asset class.

McDermott further detailed: “Institutional adoption will continue. Despite the material price correction, we continue to see a significant amount of interest in this space.”