Bitcoin could be a ‘store of value’, says Goldman Sachs CEO

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon also referred to bitcoin as a speculative investment without a real use case

July 30, 2024 05:19 pm

Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon | World Bank / Grant Ellis/"Unleashing the Potential Of Women Entrepreneurs Through Finance and Markets" (CC license)

In a CNBC interview today, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said that bitcoin “could be a store of value.”

The answer came in response to CNBC’s Joe Kernan’s questions around the viability of bitcoin as a reserve asset, similar to gold reserves.

Solomon, however, acknowledged that bitcoin could also be a “speculative investment” without a “real use case,” though the underlying technology is “super interesting.”

He analogized bitcoin to gold, as a non-productive asset which doesn’t generate income.

The Goldman Sachs CEO has historically praised the merits of blockchain technology. In the wake of the 2022 FTX collapse, Solomon argued in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that cryptocurrencies are just one of many possible use cases on blockchains, and that innovators shouldn’t “miss the forest for the trees.”

Solomon pointed to the efficiency gains from uses of blockchain technology in traditional finance.

“Using our new tokenization platform, we arranged a [100 million euro] two-year digital bond for the European Investment Bank with two other banks, all based on a private blockchain,” Solomon told CNBC. “Typically, a bond sale like this takes about five days to settle. Ours settled in 60 seconds,” he said.

Goldman’s foray into crypto began as early as 2021 when it launched its digital assets unit to offer crypto derivatives trading.

The investment back giant planned to launch three tokenization funds by the end of 2024, Fortune reported last month.

Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs was named as an authorized participant for bitcoin ETF issuer BlackRock.

Speaking in Paris on the eve of the FOMC interest rate decision, Solomon said he expects “one or two cuts in the fall” as more likely than any immediate action from the US central bank.

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