The CEO of Goldman Sachs indicates that cryptocurrencies are becoming a priority for his bank, particularly with regard to tokenization and stablecoins. In this context, he has also just met with the leaders of the prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi.
Is Goldman Sachs in the starting blocks with the arrival of crypto legislation?
The adoption of cryptocurrencies by US banking giants has picked up pace since Morgan Stanley surprised everyone by filing several consecutive ETF applications, followed by an equally unexpected crypto wallet project last week.
This is enough to motivate the competition to intensify its forays into the field, if we are to believe recent statements by Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon during his company’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
This was an opportunity to state that “a significant number of its employees are currently focused on two key areas: tokenization and stablecoins.”
This is a significant step forward that Goldman Sachs plans to take in parallel with the implementation of crypto legislation initially promised for 2026, if it manages to overcome the many obstacles and delays currently standing in its way.
Obviously, there’s a lot going on in Washington right now with the Clarity Act. I was in Washington on Tuesday to discuss with some people the points we consider important for our business and how this should be formulated.
David Solomon
A keen interest in prediction markets
However, the CEO of Goldman Sachs does not seem to be limiting himself to the traditional topics of tokenization and stablecoins. He also announced that he had “personally met with the two major prediction companies and their management over the past two weeks.” These meetings lasted several hours and were clearly intended to “learn more about this subject.”
The purpose of these summit meetings was to determine how and when these prediction markets could “create cross-opportunities for our companies.” This is a question that David Solomon says he is “particularly focused on.”
Despite everything, the CEO of Goldman Sachs does not want to get carried away. Because even though he believes there are “many reasons to be enthusiastic and interested in all of this, the pace of change may not be as rapid and immediate as some experts claim .“
This restraint may already be seen as a significant step forward, given the mistrust expressed in his annual letter to shareholders for 2024. This is all the more so given David Solomon’s assertion that these innovations are ”important” and the attention now being paid to them.
