The Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETF) approval in the US in January was a “big psychological turning point” for crypto, according to Mathew McDermott, Goldman Sachs’ global head of crypto. As reported by Forbes, McDermott highlighted the impact of these ETFs at the Coindesk Consensus conference, adding that Bitcoin ETF “obviously has been an astonishing success.”Given the success of Bitcoin ETFs and the BTC price leap registered after the event, McDermott added that the spot Ethereum ETFs approval last week was “a natural progression.”
“From my vantage point, our clients typically just focus on Bitcoin and Ethereum— they’re the two products that have tradable futures on the CME. So that’s why you can see a positive read [on Ethereum ETFs]. In terms of others, I think we could be positive, but I think it’s too early to say.”
The head of crypto at Goldman Sachs also shared that as regulations become clearer, blockchain industry proponents will start advocating even more about the viability of this technology. Therefore, other asset classes will intertwine with crypto, with McDermott mentioning real estate and green debt issuance, in an expansion of real-world assets tokenization.Moreover, when it comes to crypto and regulation, McDermott believes that regulated traditional financial institutions will drive meaningful innovation in crypto, as said during his participation at the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit in London in March.
“I look at the regulatory landscape globally and at how that’s progressed in the last couple years, and… It’s actually been pretty remarkable. That has actually given a lot of clarity and confidence, quite frankly, for probably a lot of the traditional players to really kind of move forward and invest in this space.”
