Goldman Sachs to establish a new blockchain venture targeting faster trading and settlements
Key receivers
Goldman Sachs plans to create a new blockchain venture from its digital assets platform. Business Web Markets will work with the bank to develop new business use cases for the platform.
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Goldman Sachs is in the process of reshaping its digital assets platform into a new entity for major financial firms, allowing it to create, trade and settle financial instruments using blockchain technology, Bloomberg reported Monday.
The competition is in its early stages, with a target completion period of 12 to 18 months, depending on obtaining the necessary regulatory approvals.
Goldman Sachs seeks to address blockchain adoption challenges, particularly reluctance among companies to adopt systems built by competitors. This hesitancy has hindered the spread of blockchain applications despite decades of Wall Street speculation.
The bank aims to build an industry-owned digital value platform that supports a wide range of use cases, such as depositing cash for collateral purposes.
“Having something industrialized is in the best interest of the market,” said Matthew McDermott, Goldman Sachs' global head of digital assets.
The new venture, which will focus on digital assets, will be different from its current operations. Despite the spin-off, Goldman Sachs will retain its digital assets group and continue to expand its overall activities in the digital asset space.
The bank, which manages more than $3 trillion in assets, is engaging partners to launch the plan. As reported, TradeWeb Markets has agreed to become the platform's first strategic partner, partnering with Goldman to develop new business use cases for the digital assets platform.
“If you're trying to build a transformative marketplace, you want to have the right strategic participants who will embrace this technology,” McDermott said. “You want a number that's good enough to work with, driven by business use cases.”
In addition to the new blockchain venture, the bank plans to facilitate secondary transactions for its customers in private digital asset companies and reactivate the Bitcoin-backed lending activity.
The latest move comes as Goldman Sachs plans to launch three major tokenization projects in July by year-end, targeting institutional clients and highlighting improved transaction speeds. Unlike BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, which target retail clients and focus on public blockchains, Goldman Sachs focuses on private blockchains.
The launch of spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs in the United States has led to a resurgence of interest among institutional investors in digital assets.
Goldman Sachs is one of the largest owners of BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT). According to a recent SEC filing, the bank increased its stake in IBIT by 83 percent to $12.7 million for $461 million.
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