Goldman eschews bitcoin but wants to help clients crypto-trade

Goldman Sachs Group Inc is trying to figure out how to cater to investors who want to trade bitcoin even though the digital currency remains too volatile for the Wall Street bank to trade itself, according to comments by a representative and its chief executive officer on Thursday. 

At an event, CEO Lloyd Blankfein said there was no imminent need for Goldman Sachs to develop a strategy around bitcoin, which rose to an all-time high of $11,395 (8,435 pounds) on Wednesday only to lose one-fifth of its value on Thursday.

“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,” Blankfein said at an event hosted by Bloomberg to promote Goldman’s 10,000 Small Businesses endeavour.

The bank will trade in bitcoin if it becomes more established, trades in a less volatile manner and has more liquidity, he said. 

Even so, Goldman has been looking at ways to facilitate bitcoin trades for customers. It is still doing so, spokeswoman Tiffany Galvin told Reuters in a statement.

Meanwhile, Citigroup Inc CEO Michael Corbat predicted governments will issue digital currencies of their own, something a U.S. Federal Reserve official said the central bank is considering at an event on Wednesday. The following day, another Fed official called bitcoin a threat to the financial system.