In the latest reports, Goldman Sachs has said that it wants to offer Ether (ETH) derivatives products in the coming months. The US investment bank has now set the stage for wider adoption of the biggest altcoin which marks a considerable departure from the institution’s crucial stand on digital assets in the past years.
After being overly critical of cryptos, the Wall Street investment bank officially invested in bitcoin earlier in 2021. Interestingly, it is now expanding its offerings to feature ETH. Goldman’s managing director of digital assets, Mathew McDermott, confirmed on June 14 that the bank is expanding into the second-biggest crypto’s ETH futures and options.
In an extensive interview with Bloomberg News, McDermott mentioned that institutional demand for cryptos will continue to grow extensively despite the recent spike of market volatility:
“Institutional adoption will continue. […] Despite the material price correction, we continue to see a significant amount of interest in this space.”
McDermott cited a survey of 850 institutions in the past week in which almost 10% of the respondents said that they are trading crypto, and 20% of them are interested in joining the market.
Institutional inflows into most of the Ether products have already amounted to almost $1 billion in 2021, with the total assets worth around $11.1 billion, based on CoinShares data. Goldman unveiled a limited BTC derivatives trading desk early last month. This new outfit is now embedded within the bank’s Global Currencies and Emerging Markets division which is entirely overseen by McDermott’s digital-asset unit.
The bank’s embrace of digital assets stretches beyond its trading desks. Previous reports show that the bank recently spearheaded a $15 million investment round for CoinMetrics, a major crypto intelligence platform. McDermott stated that Goldman Sachs is “looking at a number of different companies that fit our strategic direction.”
