Goldman Sachs Group offered its first ever lending facility backed by bitcoin, in a significant step for a major U.S. bank that accelerates Wall Street’s embrace of cryptocurrencies.
The secured lending facility lent cash collateralized by bitcoin owned by the borrower, a spokeswoman for the bank said. The deal was interesting to Goldman because of its structure and 24-hour risk management, she said in an email.
Wall Street banks are ramping up their crypto offerings after a surge in price and popularity chipped away years of prior resistance. For Goldman, which
Jefferies Financial Group is expanding banking services for crypto clients, while BlackRock joined a $400 million funding round in the stablecoin firm Circle this month. The boutique investment bank Cowen started a digital assets unit in March.
Some of the crypto-related products and services already offered by Wall Street include wealth management, trading and investment banking. Lending to companies that provide virtual currencies as collateral is the next step, Damien Vanderwilt, co-president of Galaxy Digital Holdings, recently said.
So far, crypto-friendly banks including Silvergate Capital have already
