Banking titan Goldman Sachs is on the brink of offering investment options for bitcoin and other digital assets to its private wealth management clients, a media report says.
The bank hopes to begin the offerings next quarter, Mary Rich, who’s about to be named Goldman’s global head of digital assets, told CNBC.
″We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near term,” she said. “Whether that’s through the physical bitcoin, derivatives or traditional investment vehicles,” she said.
A key Goldman rival, Morgan Stanley, has told its financial advisers that clients can start investing in bitcoin funds next month, CNBC reports.
Goldman’s stock recently traded at $331.01, down 0.3%. The stock has soared 65% in the past six months as the New York investment bank rebounds from years of financial underperformance. Investors' enthusiasm about the prospects for economic recovery also has buoyed the shares.
As for bitcoin, analysts remain divided as to whether it’s a fad or an asset whose time has come. If it becomes widely enough integrated into the infrastructure of major investment firms, it can become a fixture of the financial system, regardless of its merits.
Bitcoin recently traded at $58,384.32, down 1.6%.
It received a boost last week when Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk said it would accept bitcoin as payment for its electric vehicles.
This article originally appeared on The Street.
