Share this article
Goldman Sachs Latest to Label Crypto a Business Risk
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has cited its connection to cryptocurrencies and blockchain as a potential business risk, public records show.
By Stan Higgins
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 7:36 a.m. Published Feb 26, 2018, 5:00 p.m.
Investment banking giant Goldman Sachs has cited its connection to cryptocurrencies and blockchain as a potential business risk, public records show.
In a way, the disclosure echoes one published last week by Bank of America, which warned at the time that it faces both competitive and compliance risks as a result of the technology.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
According to the Feb. 26 filing, which constitutes its annual report for the fiscal year 2017, Goldman believes that it might be impacted because of its work with clients and the companies it has invested in. Goldman is an investor in payments startup Circle (which announced today that it had acquired crypto exchange Poloniex) and is one of a number of investment banks that offers its customers access to bitcoin futures markets, as reported by Bloomberg earlier this year.
The company wrote:
"We may be, or may become, exposed to risks related to distributed ledger technology through our facilitation of clients' activities involving financial products linked to distributed ledger technology, such as blockchain or cryptocurrencies, our investments in companies that seek to develop platforms based on distributed ledger technology, and the use of distributed ledger technology by third-party vendors, clients, counterparties, clearing houses and other financial intermediaries."
While no obvious connection was drawn, the risks highlighted – particularly on the cryptocurrency front – may form part of the reason why Goldman has thus far eschewed any closer involvement in the market.
In January, CEO Lloyd Blankfein denied a past report that the investment bank was eyeing the launch of a dedicated trading desk for bitcoin (though he did leave the door open for such a move at a later date).
"We're a prime broker and so if our clients are going to do it, we're going to do it. A principal bitcoin business where we're going long and short, market making, so far we're not," he said at the time.
Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Circle.
Image Credit: Katherine Welles / Shutterstock.com
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
DOT Sinks 2% After Breaking Key Support
The Polkadot token erased earlier gains amid elevated volume, falling from a high of $2.09 to $1.97.
What to know:
- DOT collapsed through ascending trendline support around the $2.05 level on a massive 284% volume surge.
- The token broke decisively below the support level to trade 2% lower over the last 24 hours.
Top Stories
