Goldman Sachs sees resurgence in clients' interest in crypto assets: report

Wall Street giant Goldman Sachs has seen a resurgence in interest in cryptocurrency-related products from its hedge fund clients, its Asia Pacific executive said in an interview with Bloomberg.

“Many of our largest clients are active or exploring getting active in the space,” Max Minton, Asia Pacific head of digital assets of Goldman Sachs, told Bloomberg, adding that the recent U.S. approval of spot bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) has triggered such investment interest.

Minton continued that much of the clients’ attention still lies with bitcoin-related products, but this might change if spot ether ETFs get approved in the U.S.

Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs has also been looking at investing in crypto bankruptcy claims, Mathew McDermott, its global head of digital assets, said at the Digital Asset Summit in London last week.

McDermott added that Goldman Sachs launched its crypto desk in 2021 and that while last year was tough, this year has been a sea change in terms of supply, volumes and price action. 

Over the past week, the ten spot bitcoin ETFs in the U.S. saw total outflows of $888 million, led by a day of record-breaking outflows from Grayscale's GBTC on March 18, BitMEX Research data showed. The cumulative volume of the spot bitcoin ETFs rose about $22 billion over the past week to reach a total of $164 billion as of March 22, according to The Block's data dashboard.