Goldman Sachs ditching plans for a bitcoin trading desk: Report

Goldman Sachs is reportedly abandoning plans to launch a cryptocurrency trading desk.

As per a report in Business Insider, the decision has been made as the regulatory situation in the US, is still a grey area when it comes to cryptocurrencies. Sources said that the banking giant hasn't completely abandoned the idea, but is rather pushing the possibility lower down on its priorities list and there are chances of opening the desk sometime at a later date.

Following the report, bitcoin price fell roughly 5 percent to below $7,000 and the rest of the top five cryptocurrencies by market cap were also down by more than 12 percent.

As reported by CoinDesk in October 2017, Goldman Sachs has been considering launching a new trading operation for the past one year which would focus on bitcoin and other digital currencies.

Lloyd Blankfein, the bank’s CEO had tweeted in October that Goldman was "still thinking about bitcoin." "No conclusion - not endorsing/rejecting. Know that folks also were skeptical when paper money displaced gold," Blankfein mentioned at the time.

"In response to client interest in various digital products, we are exploring how best to serve them in the space. At this point, we have not reached a conclusion on the scope of our digital asset offering," Goldman Sachs said in a statement.

Brian Kelly, founder and CEO of crypto hedge fund BKCM, said while this doesn't have an impact on actual bitcoin trading volume short-term, the report pours cold water on long-term sentiment. "They were not a part of the ecosystem yet, but to the extent that they represent the institutional herd, this is a negative," Kelly added.