Despite the 80% collapse in crypto prices this year,Ā Goldman SachsĀ says its cryptocurrency trading is significantly higher in native volumes, which translates to being flat in dollar terms.
Thatās according to Andrei Kazantsev, who headsĀ Goldman SachsĀ crypto trading globally. The bank provides market making inĀ cash settled derivativesĀ in the form of non deliverable forwards and options.
The cryptocurrency sector has been talking about its institutional adoption for years. But for a period hedge funds dominated.Ā
āIt used to be only hedge funds were interested in crypto. Itās definitely not anymore,ā said Kazantsev talking at the Crypto Assets conference, pointing to interest from asset managers and pension funds.
He also addressed the sectorās risks.
āEveryone is saying itās a high volatility asset. How can it be investable for big asset managers? In reality, a lot of asset managers are already involved in very high volatility currencies. In FX weāve seen many episodes of local volatility, for instance, in Turkey, in Russia, in Brazil, in many EM (emerging market) countries. So this is not something new,ā said Kazantsev.
āSo long as you put robust risk management frameworks around that, itās manageable. And itās another asset class that potentially can provide high yield.ā
The recentĀ bankruptciesĀ in the crypto sector have highlighted counterparty risks, which is one of the reasons that traditional clients would prefer to trade with a counterparty such as Goldman.
āThe number of inbound client calls weāre having is constantly increasing across the board, across different client bases,ā added Kazantsev.
Beyond crypto trading, Goldman is involved in numerous blockchain initiatives. Working with Digital Asset, itās developing itsĀ tokenization platformĀ to support multiple asset classes. It has been participating inĀ JP Morganās intraday RepoĀ platform for more than a year. And inĀ HQLAX, the collateral management platform.
Aside from these activities, it has made several investments. These include Digital Asset, crypto trading platformĀ Elwood, crypto security companyĀ Certik, infrastructure firmĀ Blockdaemon, and crypto data firmĀ Coin Metrics.