Former Goldman Sachs CEO Says Crypto Is ‘Happening’ Years After Bashing Bitcoin
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Lloyd Blankfein, a former CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, has acknowledged during an interview that cryptocurrencies are evolving and revealed he has changed his mind on the cryptoasset space, years after bashing Bitcoin saying it’s a “vehicle to perpetrate fraud.”
Speaking to CNBC’s Andrew Ross Sorkin, Blankfein was asked for his view on the cryptocurrency space after showing skepticism in the past. He said:
Look, my view of it is evolving. I can’t predict the future, but I think it’s a big thing to be able to predict the present, like, ‘What is happening?’ And I look at the crypto, and it is happening.
The former CEO of Goldman Sachs clarified that by “happening” he means the entire cryptocurrency ecosystem has matured over the past year. Goldman Sachs itself has started offering clients ways to trade and custody cryptoassets, with analysts at the bank estimating BTC could hit $100,000 by taking further market share away from gold.
Blankfein’s comments came amid a crypto market sell-off that saw the price of BTC drop to a $34,000 low. In total, the space saw its market capitalization drop from $2.1 trillion to $1.5 trillion before starting to recover.
The former CEO noted that while crypto has lost a “lot of value” it’s at a point “where it’s trillions of dollars of value contributing to it and whole ecosystems are growing around it.” Blankfein added the space benefits from the use of blockchain technology, instantaneous transfers, and reduction of credit risk.
Back in 2017, on Bloomberg Television, the then Goldman Sachs CEO criticized bitcoin and said that “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.”
During the interview, the former CEO of Goldman Sachs also addressed a wider sell-off in equities markets, saying uncertainty over inflation led to bearishness in the market.
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The views and opinions expressed by the author, or any people mentioned in this article, are for informational purposes only, and they do not constitute financial, investment, or other advice. Investing in or trading cryptoassets comes with a risk of financial loss.
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