Goldman Sachs opens its doors to Bitcoins

Lloyd Blankfein, the Chief Executive Officer of Goldman Sachs, has said that his company is open to trading in Bitcoins, even though he himself is not totally happy with the crypto currency. His comment was made during an interview with Bloomberg at the Sustainable Finance Innovation Forum held recently in New York. He qualified his statement by saying that although he feels a certain discomfort with Bitcoins, it is the same discomfort he experiences with any new innovation. Prompting his comments is the fact that CME Group has recently announced that they are considering launching Bitcoin futures, something that, if it comes off, would bring a new level of legitimacy to the digital currency. Blankfein likened Bitcoins to cellphones and went on to say that he has found over the years that things work out well with many such innovations, despite the fact that he personally hasn’t fallen in love with them. Credit Suisse CEO snipes at the Bitcoins bubble Blankfein’s modest acceptance of Bitcoins contradicts the position of the majority of mainstream banks. The CEO of Credit Suisse has tried to pour water on the latest success of Bitcoins (namely its success in topping the $7,000 value mark for the first time) by saying that the only logic behind trading Bitcoin is to make money. He then went on to say that history tells us that this type of speculation often ends badly. At this point in time, all mainstream banks operate under strict regulations which prevents them from adopting Bitcoins. However, this should not be cause for them to attack Bitcoins, as Jamie Dimon and others have done in the recent past. But, the fact of the matter is that banks that enjoy huge reputations and that are considered too large to fold actually pose more of a systematic risk than the so-called crypto currencies. It is these same banks who are trying to blacken Bitcoins and other digital currencies by highlighting the risk of their use in crime and the potential threat they offer to economic stability. These tactics are simply a way of trying to convince the regulators to take action, but as the recent rise in Bitcoin value suggests, the market is making up its own mind.