CEO of investment giants Goldman Sachs, Lloyd Blankfein, has hit out at cryptocurrency cynics who believe that cryptocurrency is just a fad. Lloyd voiced his opinion at the economic club of New York conference. Lloyd has long held that cryptocurrency was yet to become a major asset class but must be considered as emerging asset classes. He also recognized the potential of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and the block-chain.
He also commented that the current fiat currencies were valued by various governments, cryptocurrency gave the world a chance to have a consensus currency. In an earlier interview, Lloyd compared what is happening with crypto to what happened with the gold standard centuries back. The gold standard was replaced by a valueless US dollar after much resistance from merchants, individuals, and investors. People simply did not see themselves accepting paper money over the gold currency and that is kind of similar to what is happening today.
A lot of financial institutions are having a tough time internalizing the idea of giving up paper money for digital currency. Despite that fact that crypto is becoming rather popular, Lloyd does not believe it will be picked up as a reserve currency in the near future since there is a lot of learning to be done. Unlike most other financial institutions, Goldman Sachs has really warmed up to cryptocurrency.
This is evident by their move to set up a crypto trading desk. This was confirmed by their chief operating officer, David Solomon, who confessed that those plans had been in the pipeline for a while. David went on to explain that desk would not only clear bit-coin futures but also help clients as they explore crypto.
