Crypto Is In Limbo, Whatever Goldman Does

Imagine if Goldman Sachs Group Inc. had announced a Bitcoin trading operation at the end of 2017, just as public enthusiasm was reaching fever pitch. What an endorsement! With Bitcoin futures being rolled out on exchanges and hedge funds reinventing themselves as cryptocurrency firms, supporters of stateless money would no doubt have claimed Wall Street’s use of it as inevitable step on the path to riches.

That announcement never came — but the sell-off did. Five months and a 50-percent drop in the price later, news that Goldman will start trading Bitcoin after all, or rather contracts linked to its price, seems awkwardly timed. As fun as it might be to build a brand-new, interesting kind of banking product (as my colleague Matt Levine described it) this doesn’t look like the kind of endorsement that boosts adoption and revitalizes wary investors.