It would offer exposure to public companies in decentralized finance and blockchain around the globe.

Wall street heavyweight Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has filed with the SEC for launching a new ETF titled the Goldman Sachs Innovate DeFi and Blockchain Equity ETF. According to the filing, the fund would benchmark the Solactive Decentralized Finance and Blockchain Index. (THE BLOCK)

The objective of the fund is to invest at least 80% of its assets into companies involved with “blockchain technology” and the “digitization of finance”.

Blockchain Technology is defined as the technology underlying distributed ledgers applicable to payments, currencies and other fields and industries that depend on a trusted intermediary. Digitalization of Finance is defined as the digital transformation of traditional financial services, including the support and delivery of payments, transaction services, lending and insurance.

Companies providing the above technologies could be listed and traded on major exchanges including Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Confusion on the index

It appears that Goldman Sachs was actually referring to the Solactive Blockchain Technology Performance-Index, according to CryptoNews, which clarified the matter with Solactive, the German index provider.

Solactive replied: “There is indeed a confusion here, the index Goldman Sachs was making reference to is not the Solactive Decentralized Finance and Blockchain Index but the Solactive Blockchain Technology Performance Index.”

A reference to the list of companies included in the Solactive Blockchain Technology Performance Index includes names such as Nokia.

This triggered many a Twitter jibe at Goldman:

• “How in the actual f**k does Nokia even qualify?”
• “The only thing DeFi about this is the rugpull.”
• “Of course, not one of the companies Goldman lists for their ‘DeFi ETF’ is actually a DeFi company or protocol. Is this fraud? It kind of feels like fraud.”

Related Story:  A New “Disruptively Themed” Index From Goldman Sachs And Solactive

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