Goldman Sachs CFO: We Are Not Shutting Down Our Cryptocurrency Trading Desk

Goldman Sachs chief financial officer Martin Chavez slammed reports that the investment bank is shutting down its cryptocurrency trading desk as “fake news.”

“I never thought I would hear myself use this term, but I really have to describe that news as fake news,” Chavez said on stage at the 2018 TechCrunch Disrupt Conference in San Francisco, as reported by CNBC.

Chavez said Goldman is continuing to explore cryptocurrencies because of growing client demand for the emerging asset class.

“The next stage of the exploration is what we call non-deliverable forwards, these are over-the-counter derivatives,” Chavez said. “They’re settled in U.S. dollars and the reference price is the bitcoin-U.S. dollar price established by a set of exchanges.”

The price of bitcoin and other top virtual currencies dipped earlier this week amid reports that Goldman Sachs was planning to shutter its cryptocurrency trading desk.

Outgoing CEO Is Bitcoin Skeptic

Lloyd Blankfein, the outgoing CEO of Goldman Sachs, is a bitcoin skeptic, but has refused to rule it out completely.

Blankfein said he’s not a crypto fan, but also said it’s “arrogant” to dismiss it given the traction it has gained in just the past year, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

“It’s not for me, I own no bitcoin,” Blankfein said at the Economic Club of New York in June. “I’m not in this school of saying that…because it’s unfamiliar, this can’t happen. That’s too arrogant.”

New CEO Is A Bitcoin Enthusiast

Blankfein will retire from Goldman Sachs in October, after having served as its CEO since 2006. Blankfein will be succeeded by David Solomon, who is a crytocurrency enthusiast.

“We are clearing some futures around bitcoin, talking about doing some other activities there, but it’s going very cautiously,” Solomon told Bloomberg. “We’re listening to our clients and trying to help our clients as they’re exploring those things too.”

Solomon said Goldman Sachs must “evolve its business and adapt to the environment” in response to a question about virtual currencies.

Outgoing CEO Lloyd Blankfein was criticized for reacting too slowly to the changing tides surrounding digital currencies, which have mushroomed in popularity during the past two years.

Twitter CEO: Bitcoin Will Displace All Other Currencies

While bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been trashed by billionaire moguls like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, others are vocal proponents.

Twitter billionaire Jack Dorsey has predicted that bitcoin will displace all other currencies within the next decade, as the Inquisitr previously reported.

“The world ultimately will have a single currency, the Internet will have a single currency,” Dorsey said. “I personally believe that it will be bitcoin.”