Last week was a bit of a rough ride for
bitcoin (BTC), but there have been marginal gains today, along with the other major players in the cryptocurrency marketplace.
At press time, bitcoin (BTC) was trading at an average of US$8,755 – a gain of about a point-and-a-half.
Ethereum (ETH) up by a small fraction, as well.
Over the month, BTC is up 4.9 per cent. And over the last year, of course, the numbers are still huge – up 372 per cent.
CLICK BELOW FOR LIVE CRYPTOCURRENCY PRICE INDEXES:
Goldman Sachs is set to become the first regulated financial institution to offer its clients to trade Bitcoin futures via one of its New York desks. The investment banking giant is making the foray into the crypto futures market after pressure mounted from clients singing the praises of virtual currencies.
Matthew Newton, cryptocurrency analyst and head of Communications for EMEA at Goldman Sachs, said the move was not unexpected given the vast amount of attention given to virtual money in the last year and a half.
According to Newton:
“This shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone who has been paying attention to cryptocurrencies over the last 18 months…Any forward-looking financial institution needs to understand this technology and accept its enormous potential.”
Although the bank will offer a trading desk for Bitcoin, it will only initially offer the service in a limited capability.
But Newton said although the move could be a positive sign for the future of Bitcoin, because the bank is not yet buying or selling coins, there is still some ‘scepticism’ about crypto.
And he went on to say:
“Despite some initial posturing, the reality is most big banks have already invested significant amounts in research and development into blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies themselves.”