Goldman Sachs is preparing to spin off its digital assets platform into an independent company (spin-out) within the next 12 to 18 months, according to Bloomberg.
Goldman is reportedly in talks with various market participants to form partnerships as it lays the groundwork for the new entity. The spin-out will be contingent on regulatory approvals and plans are still in the early stages.
The proposed company will enable financial institutions to create, trade and settle financial instruments using blockchain technology. Tradeweb Markets, an electronic trading platform, will collaborate with Goldman Sachs to explore new trading applications for its digital assets platform.
“It’s in the interest of the market to have something that the industry owns,” said Mathew McDermott, Goldman’s global head of Digital Assets, outlining the collaborative vision for the platform.
The division aims to provide a broad range of services, including facilitating secondary transactions for private digital asset companies, which will provide clients such as family offices with access to liquidity while offering buyers the opportunity to invest at special market discounts.
Goldman Sachs also plans to continue its Bitcoin-backed lending operations, signaling its confidence in the growing demand for digital asset financial services.
“If you’re trying to build a scalable market, you want to have the right strategic participants adopting this technology,” McDermott said. “You want a number that’s fast enough to operate, driven by commercial use cases.”
*Not investment advice.
