Goldman Sachs executes its first Bitcoin-backed loan

TL;DR Breakdown

• Goldman Sachs collateralizes Bitcoins for money loans
• The investment bank and other banks on Wall Street are expanding their presence in the crypto space.
• Banks all across the globe have major investments in the cryptocurrency Industry.

American investment bank and Wall Street giant, Goldman Sachs, processed its first Bitcoin-backed loan deal on Thursday.  According to a news post by Bloomberg, the bank granted a loan to a customer while accepting Bitcoin as collateral.

“The secured lending facility lent cash collateralized by Bitcoin owned by the borrower. The deal was interesting to Goldman because of its structure and 24-hour risk management” said a spokesperson of the bank per the report by Bloomberg.

This is another significant stride in the acceptance of digital assets by the investment bank. Earlier in March, they began to offer over-the-counter trading options for Bitcoin to their clients, and the bank executives have also announced intentions to replicate the same with the Ethereum token.

Goldman Sachs is also fraternizing with major players in the crypto space. Recently, news broke about a “secret” meeting between the company’s head, David Solomon, and Sam-Bankman Fried,  the CEO of FTX. The New-York based Bank was apparently seeking a “sort of partnership”  with the crypto exchange service company.

Goldman Sachs is just one of the Wall Street banks with an interest in digital assets.

Asides from Goldman Sachs, other Wall Street titans have also been captivated by the booming digital asset economy. In March 2021, Morgan Stanley began to offer its clientele access to Bitcoin Funds. It was the first service of its sort in the United States.

Furthermore, JP Morgan Chase is the first bank in the world to enter the Metaverse. In early February this year,  the bank launched a virtual reality lounge in the blockchain-based virtual reality world, Decentraland. Later that month, they also announced an investment in blockchain analytics company, TRM labs.

Alongside the American banks, other major conventional banks around the world have significant stakes in the crypto market. These financial institutions have a combined interest of about $3 billion dollars in the cryptocurrency market per a statistics report by crypto analytics firm, Blockdata,

The Standard Chartered PLC, based in London, has the largest investment in the digital asset economy by any bank in the world. They have invested a total of $380 million via 6 fundraising rounds for crypto startups.

Other major banks around the world with crypto interests include Japan’s largest bank, the MUFG Bank, as well as the BBVA bank in Spain.