Goldman Sachs looking to advise FTX on IPO, regulatory discussions

Goldman Sachs is looking to form a partnership with FTX, one of the largest bitcoin exchanges, the Financial Times reported on April 21.

According to the report, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon met with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried in a closed-door meeting in March to examine possible opportunities for collaboration.

The discussions were about minimizing regulatory compliance in the U.S., particularly with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), future financing round, and a potential initial public offering (IPO).

Goldman is reportedly looking to play an active advisory role for the crypto firm.

The most recent research emphasizes the increasing link between established Wall Street behemoths and upstart crypto firms. Goldman Sachs is also interested in assisting FTX with its public listing.

However, sources close to the situation believe that Bankman-Fried is actively seeking further private funding alternatives.

After three investment rounds totaling hundreds of millions of dollars, FTX has amassed a $32 billion valuation. The crypto business finished a $400 million investment round at the end of January — the lowest of the three funding rounds.

Goldman Sachs has come a long way from its early days of Bitcoin bashing and is now eyeing a stake in FTX, one of the largest crypto market businesses.

The claims of a partnership between one of the leading Wall Street banks and one of the top crypto exchanges come when FTX has applied with the CFTC demanding that its crypto futures products exclude brokers such as Wall Street banks from the financial markets.

The two CEOs also spoke about working on market making in cryptocurrency trading. Market makers are entities that set buy and sell prices on certain assets to facilitate transactions and offer liquidity.

The conversations show how conventional financial institutions are becoming more interested in the crypto market, especially after Goldman Sachs guided the initial public offering (IPO) of crypto exchange Coinbase (COIN) last year.