Barclays' CEO Jes Staley has refuted recent rumours that the UK bank will be opening a cryptocurrency trading desk, UK media platform Financial News reported May 1.
"Cryptocurrency is a real challenge for us because, on the one hand, there is the innovative side of it and wanting to stay in the forefront of technology's improvement in finance On the other side of it, there is the possibility of cryptocurrencies being used for activities that the bank wants to have no part of."
As Cointelegraph reported in mid-April, Barclays had reportedly conducted a preliminary assessment to gage whether client interest was sufficient to warrant setting up a dedicated desk.
Staley did however say yesterday that the bank continues to help its clients to settle Bitcoin futures contracts that are being offered on derivatives exchanges such as CME Group Inc. and CBOE Global Markets Inc. Staley's rebuttal echoes that of Goldman Sachs' CEO Lloyd Blankfein in January, who put an end to similar speculations that the New York bank would set up its own cryptocurrency trading desk.
Goldman Sachs has - reportedly "Inadvertently" - owned a stake in a Circle-owned crypto trading desk since 2015.
Within the last two weeks, Goldman Sachs has responded to "Client interest," choosing to hire a cryptocurrency trader as vice president of digital asset markets of their securities division.
Staley's wary stance echoes an in-house analysis that was issued by Barclays Plc in April, which likened the spread of Bitcoin investment to an infectious disease.
The Barclays analysts claimed that "Immunity threshold" among new investors has now been reached, and considered that the crypto virus is more than likely to go into "Remission."
Barclays' CEO Refutes Rumors The Bank Is Opening Crypto Trading Desk
Published on May 2, 2018
by Cointele | Published on Coinage
Coinage
Recent News
View All
Blockchain Bites: Bitcoin's Run, Uniswap's Hemorrhaging Value, Anchorage's Banking Bid
Bitcoin is nearing all-time highs in price and market cap last set three years ago.
Japan's megabanks to lead experiment with digital yen
We have, in order, Cheese Bank with a $3.3 million theft, Akropolis with its $2 million loss, Value DeFi with a whopping $6 million exploit and finally Origin Protocol's loss of $7 million.
Number of new Bitcoin addresses spikes amid growing FOMO
Japan's three largest banks, as part of a group of 30 private sector actors, are set to collaborate on an experiment with a digital yen.
Not just Wall Street: Quant trader explains why Bitcoin price is going up
Sam Trabucco, a quantitative trader at Alameda Research, believes four general factors are pushing up the price of Bitcoin.