Goldman Sachs re-enters the crypto space! Will launch three tokenized products: US funds, European bonds

With asset management giants BlackRock and Fidelity continuing to expand their businesses into the crypto space, Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs is also gearing up to take action, planning to launch three new tokenized products targeting large institutions in the U.S. and Europe by the end of this year.

Goldman Sachs to Launch Tokenized Products for Institutions

According to a report by Fortune, Goldman Sachs plans to launch three new tokenized products later this year, demonstrating the firm's commitment to embracing digital innovation in the financial sector.

Goldman's Global Head of Digital Assets, Mathew McDermott, did not reveal many details in the report, only stating:

One product will target the "U.S. fund industry," another will focus on the "European bond market," and we also expect to create markets for more tokenized assets.

He noted that the target clients will primarily be financial institutions, rather than retail investors, and unlike competitors, Goldman will mainly issue related products through authorized blockchains.

Furthermore, in the face of the strong rally in cryptocurrencies this year, he attributed it to the listing of dozens of bitcoin spot ETFs, indicating that this has indeed attracted the attention of their large clients.

Looking ahead to the upcoming U.S. elections, Mathew also emphasized that if regulatory positions become more lenient as a result, Goldman's business in the crypto sector may further expand:

There may be other things we are interested in, but they will need approval before implementation, such as actual execution or sub-custody, etc.

Goldman's Journey in Crypto Advancement

As early as 2022, Goldman made its first move into the crypto industry by purchasing bitcoin options NDO from the crypto company Galaxy Digital over-the-counter (OTC), seen as a significant move for a large traditional financial institution entering the crypto space.

Additionally, as a Qualified Participant (AP) for the BlackRock Bitcoin spot ETF, despite Goldman's Chief Investment Officer Sharmin previously showing disdain for the crypto industry, Max Minton, Goldman's Asia Pacific head of digital assets, indicated that the approval of the ETF has indeed piqued clients' interest:

Since the beginning of this year, we have seen significant growth in client interest in the crypto space, primarily from traditional hedge funds and asset management institutions.

Goldman CIO: Bitcoin is not an asset, and crypto finance has never been democratized

RWA Market Flourishing

Data from the asset tokenization analysis platform RWA.xyz shows that the market value of the U.S. tokenized government bond market has reached $1.8 billion and is still rapidly rising.

Among them, the Belldex tokenized fund " U.S. Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund BUIDL," which just officially surpassed $500 million in size a few days ago, takes the lead, followed by the $400 million " Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund FOBXX," and the " Ondo Finance USD Yield Product USDY," ranking third.

However, a report from the World Federation of Exchanges (WFE) last month also indicates that while tokenization can be an innovative solution for traditional finance, it is not a panacea for all financial institutions and is still limited by technical and regulatory constraints.

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