Goldman Sachs to Offer OTC ETH Options

Goldman Sachs, the Wall Street financial juggernaut, is planning to launch over-the-counter (OTC) Ethereum options trading, as growing interest for the second largest cryptocurrency mount, according to a Bloomberg report. 

The bank’s global head of crypto trading, Andrei Kazantsev, explained the move in a client webinar saying the plan to launch the product “in due course.” 

The 153-year-old bank does not offer spot crypto trading, but offers access to crypto in the form of ETFs and options trade. In general, institutional traders prefer to invest in crypto through a proxy, instead of holding tokens directly. 

Ethereum (ETH) has received a lot of hype and publicity lately as it is rebranding and upgrading to ETH2: aimed to improve the network’s security and scalability. In addition, it will switch from  proof of work, to a proof of stake. 

This report comes a few weeks after the New York-based financial giant announced they completed an OTC cryptocurrency-related trade with Galaxy Digital Holdings, an eminent global provider of blockchain and cryptocurrency financial services for institutions.   

An OTC trade refers to a trade between a broker dealer network opposed to on a centralized exchange, in an effort to promote equity and financial instruments that would otherwise be unavailable. They are also generally larger trades which are done privately. 

ETH is currently trading at $3,254 at the time of writing. It is down roughly 3% on the day, and the same percentage on the week, but up 54% on the year. ETh has outperformed Bitcoin percentage-wise by a considerable margin in the last year, with Bitcoin being down roughly 25%. 

Author: Tyler Irvin

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