Banking and financial services titan Goldman Sachs is making its first-ever loan grant to a borrower fully backed by leading digital asset by market cap Bitcoin (BTC).
According to a recent report, a spokesperson from the bank said that Goldman Sachs was interested in the deal because of its structure and 24-hour risk management.
This marks the first time the bank has offered a loan fully backed by a debtor’s Bitcoin stash, meaning that if the price of Bitcoin falls below a certain level, Goldman Sachs could force the borrower to add more collateral or liquidate the existing collateralized BTC.
Co-president of crypto investment firm Galaxy Digital Holdings tells Bloomberg that financial institutions lending to companies that provide digital assets as collateral is the “next step” for crypto-related services offered by blue-chip organizations.
Earlier this month, Goldman Sachs announced that they planned to offer a “full-spectrum” of services related to digital assets to high-net-worth clients with at least $25 million to invest.
At the time of the announcement, the head of digital assets for the bank’s private wealth management division, Mary Rich, said,
“We are working closely with teams across the firm to explore ways to offer thoughtful and appropriate access to the [crypto] ecosystem for private wealth clients, and that is something we expect to offer in the near term.”
Recently, a study by crypto exchange platform Bitstamp that surveyed over 5,500 institutional investors from across the globe found that 88% of them believe that crypto assets will eventually overtake traditional securities.
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