Goldman Sachs to Offer Ethereum Futures: Report

Expanding to Ethereum: Goldman eyes the number two crypto.

Goldman Plots Ethereum Move 

Goldman Sachs is looking beyond Bitcoin for its crypto offerings. 

Bloomberg reported that the investment bank plans to offer ETH options and futures in the next few months Monday. Matthew McDermott, Goldman’s head of digital assets, detailed the bank’s plans in a phone interview. 

The move into Ethereum is another sign of Goldman’s embrace of the cryptocurrency space, following last month’s announcement that it would reopen its crypto trading desk. The bank currently uses the desk to offer Bitcoin products to its clients. 

Goldman also published a report titled “Crypto: A New Asset Class?” suggesting that it believed crypto had a bright future. The paper argued that Ethereum could become the number one chain in the future, with one researcher concluding that a platform that runs applications “could potentially become a large market for vendors of trusted information, like Amazon is for consumer goods today.” 

Goldman aside, Ethereum has enjoyed a wave of institutional interest in recent months. CME Group, the world’s largest derivatives exchange, launched ETH futures in February, while the digital assets firm Anchorage launched ETH-backed loans for institutions earlier this month. On-chain data also suggests that so-called whales have been accumulating ETH in recent weeks, despite the May crash that saw the asset dip over 50% off record highs. 

Goldman isn’t the only major bank that’s doubled down on crypto in recent months. JP Morgan will offer Bitcoin products to rich clients this year, while State Street recently announced it had launched a digital assets arm. Morgan Stanley and BNY Mellon are also dipping their toes into the space. HSBC, however, has taken a different stance. The bank’s CEO recently declared that it was “not into Bitcoin” because of the price volatility. 

Bitcoin has rallied over the last week after a brief slump, breaking a key $40,000 resistance level Monday. Ethereum, meanwhile, has been less bullish. ETH is trading at $2,570 today, which is still about 40% off all-time highs.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, the author of this feature owned ETH, ETH2X-FLI, and several other cryptocurrencies.