20% of Financial Institutions Considering Crypto Trading

Within the next few months, the cryptocurrency trading market will receive an immense amount of influx as more financial institutions, banks and hedge funds consider the inclusion of digital currencies in their services. Even though they prefer not to make the plans public, many of these institutions have been preparing to be part of the crypto world.

To put this into perspective, Thomson Reuters Corporation, a Toronto-based multinational information firm recently published a survey which revealed that 20 percent of financial institutions have been juggling around the idea of being part of the cryptocurrency trading space within the next 12 months or so. However, this might happen sooner than we think since according to the survey, 70 percent of the institutions considering the move plan to begin the operations in the next three to six weeks.

“Historically, the banking sector has been notoriously dismissive of the crypto movement. Cryptocurrency has variously been called a bubble, an asset for criminals, and worthless. But today’s survey demonstrates that while financial institutions are saying one thing, they’re doing quite another,” explained Kevin Murcko, Coinmetro CEO. “We’re witnessing a gradual institutionalization of the market, and this is sure to drive mainstream adoption. The move to accommodate digital currencies is also a symbolic one; it’s a sign of growing maturity in the market, and represents just how far cryptocurrency has come since its days of relative obscurity.”

One of the institutions that is allegedly at the helm of this revolution is Goldman Sachs – “allegedly” because the company’s CEO has denied claims that the company is on the verge of launching a bitcoin trading desk. However, the company recently hired a former quantitative trader known as Just Schmidt to head its security division’s first digital asset market.

“In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space,” Goldman Sachs spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin-Cohen said in an official statement. “At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering.”

This makes the CEO’s denial rather questionable, but one thing is clear though – the bank should certainly have an extensive awareness of the fact that there is a huge demand by hedge funds and big investors for cryptocurrency trading services. Whatever it does with that information is totally up to the bank’s management.