- Wall Street is coming for crypto.
- Goldman Sachs has filed for a Bitcoin ETF.
- It is not alone in embracing digital assets.
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Hey all, Liam here.
If Wall Street’s embrace of crypto has happened in fits and starts, this week that all changed.
Not only are some of the bluest-blooded banks and financial institutions diving into digital assets, but they’re iterating products for their more conservative customers.
Goldman Sachs, the $3.6 trillion asset management firm, finally filed a Bitcoin exchange-traded fund. Unlike BlackRock’s spot Bitcoin ETF, which is officially the largest crypto ETF on the market, Goldman’s product has a unique twist.
Namely, the fund rarely touches any actual Bitcoin.
Instead, the Goldman Sachs Bitcoin Premium Income ETF is comprised mostly of other spot Bitcoin ETFs. It then sells call options on those funds to offer investors a steady yield.
For an asset that’s plummeted roughly 40% in the last six months, that steady income is attractive for traditional investors.
Goldman's filing hit the wire on Tuesday.
On Thursday, Morgan Stanley revealed that its week-old Bitcoin ETF had already hit $100 million in its first week — a feat chalked up to it being the market’s cheapest ETF at just 0.14%.
That same day, Charles Schwab announced it would let its millions of clients trade Bitcoin and Ether within their accounts for the first time.
“What we hear from many of our clients is that they have 98% of their wealth here at Schwab and they might hold a percent or 2% at some digital native firm to hold their crypto,” CEO Rick Wurster told CNBC last summer. "They really want to bring it back to Schwab because they trust us [and] they want it to sit alongside their other assets.”
While some Wall Street CEOs may have waffled about the future or even scoffed at digital assets in the past, calling them a fraud or a Ponzi scheme, these days the answer is unequivocal.
“Wall Street has literally arrived,” Nate Geraci, president of NovaDius Wealth Management, said on Friday.
Prediction markets, crypto get bipartisan scrutiny at congressional hearing
Republican lawmakers on Thursday asked Michael Selig, the head of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, for assistance in crafting legislation to onshore certain crypto platforms and to combat insider trading on prediction markets. Aleks Gilbert reports.
AI and Iran are keeping Bitcoin price in ‘no-trade zone’ until Fed wakes up, says Arthur Hayes
Bitcoin is stuck in a “no-trade zone,” and Arthur Hayes isn’t deploying any new capital into the market until the Federal Reserve injects new capital into the economy, he said on Thursday. Pedro Solimano breaks this one down.
A trader made $1.5m buying Anthropic ‘shares’ on Solana. Cashing out the win won’t be easy
A trader who invested in Solana tokens representing exposure to buzzy artificial intelligence developer Anthropic is up almost $1.5 million on their bet. There’s just one snag — there’s no one to sell them to, Tim Craig reports.
Post of the Week
Times, they are a-changin’.
Liam Kelly is DL News’ Berlin correspondent. Contact him at liam@dlnews.com.
