“Not today” and “not in our lifetime” are two ‘deadlines’ for Goldman Sachs to deal with Bitcoin, according to CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Michael Bloomberg.
Blankfein: Volatility Killed The Cat
Speaking in a joint interview on Bloomberg’s TV network, the two veteran economic voices said that in view of Bitcoin’s continued volatility, the virtual currency first needs to calm down.
“Have to have [a Bitcoin strategy]? Not today,” Blankfein replied on the topic.
…Something that moves up and down 20 percent in a day doesn’t feel like a currency, doesn’t feel like a store of value. If it works out – and it gets more established, and it trades more like a store of value, and it doesn’t move up and down 20 percent, and there is liquidity to it – we’ll get to it.
Bitcoin has become a talking point on Wall Street in recent months, and its reputation received a noticeable boost when CME Group announced it would offer Bitcoin futures next month. Nasdaq’s announcement that it, too, would be offering Bitcoin futures, is sparking further interest.
Still, Blankfein reiterated that the virtual currency was still “not for him,” while Bloomberg said that it would be beyond his lifetime that major investment banks would need any form of formal approach to it.
Bloomberg CEO: Publication ‘Is A Blockchain’
On the topic of Blockchain, however, Bloomberg was much more upbeat, saying:
There is a technology where you can have different accesses to data, different people can control it, you can see who’s doing what and that sort of thing, and there are places where that is a useful thing.
He continued:
In fact, the Bloomberg system is a Blockchain. Instead of having the users control it, we control it, but it has all the attributes of that.
CME’s chairman emeritus Leo Melamed – as well as Nasdaq today – is thus looking increasingly out on a limb concerning his hands-on treatment of Bitcoin, which he said the company would make “not wild, nor wilder” ahead of the December launch.
Bitcoin has lost over $2000 in the past 36 hours after hitting an all-time high of around $11,360.
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Images and media courtesy of Bloomberg, AP