Goldman Sachs has begun providing research findings from crypto news and data provider The Block to its institutional trading clients.
According to an email from CNBC, hedge funds and other clients have begun receiving reports on Marquee, the digital platform for investment banks. The first study accessible to Goldman clients was an analysis of Ethereum’s decentralized finance (DeFi) technologies. According to the bank, “GS Digital Assets now offers exclusive access to selected reports from The Block Research in order to provide relevant content and research on digital assets.” This type of content usually requires a paid subscription but, customers with a Marquee account can access them for free.F
This move by Goldman Sachs, a leading global investment bank, reflects the growing demand from institutional investors for data and insight on virtual currencies and related areas such as DeFi. In addition, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley announced new crypto study desks this year. At the same time, Goldman restructured the division of its digital assets last year and started trading bitcoin-linked instruments in May.
The validity of the client email confirmed by a Goldman official refused to elaborate further. However, the investment bank claims to have 50,000 regular monthly users on its Marquee platform, allowing clients to access data and analytics without calling sales personnel.
In recent years, the rapid rise of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies have been followed by the emergence of new news sites such as The Block and CoinDesk and increased employment by existing publications such as Bloomberg News. In an email, Block CEO Michael McCaffrey said that “For some time now, large financial institutions and technology companies have used the research and information services offered by The Block for better understanding of the rapidly growing market for digital assets.”