“Bitcoin is now considered an investable asset,” says Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs’ global head of digital assets.

In new research, McDermott revealed that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) clients are notably treating bitcoin as a new asset class. “Bitcoin is now considered an investable asset. It has its own idiosyncratic risk, partly because it’s still relatively new and going through an adoption phase,” he wrote. (Yahoo! Finance)

Goldman Sachs: McDermott on bitcoin

• more aligned with risk-on assets
• still relatively new and going through an adoption phase
• development of the crypto space hampered by inconsistent regulatory actions across the globe
• the regulatory tone has turned more constructive, though
• institutions interested in learning more about cryptos and how to get access to the space
• asset managers and macro funds – does crypto fit in our portfolios?
• If yes…how to get access…spot physical or futures?
• hedge funds are very active in the space
• their typical “liquidity” play – go long the spot/short the future

Meanwhile…Dalio

Once a bitcoin skeptic, Ray Dalio, the billionaire founder of  the world’s largest hedge fund, Bridgewater Associates, confirmed at an interview published Monday that “I have some bitcoin.”

The interview was recorded at the Coindesk 2021 Consensus conference.

Dalio warned that if bitcoin became highly successful it would attract regulatory glare.

“Bitcoin’s greatest risk is its success,” he said.

And if it succeeds, “one of the great things, I think, as a worry is the government having the capacity to control … bitcoin, or the digital currencies. They know where they are, and they know what’s going on,” he said.

Dalio’s concerns on the regulatory uncertainty echo those expressed in the report by McDermott of Goldman Sachs.

Dalio went on to say that personally, he preferred bitcoin to a bond.

“And then the more that happens, then it goes into bitcoin and it doesn’t go into credit, then [governments] lose control of that.”

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