Goldman Sachs Explores Investment in Crypto Bankruptcy Claims

Goldman Sachs is considering “the possibility of investing in claims against bankrupt companies in the cryptocurrency sector and other options,” according to Matthew McDermott, head of the bank’s digital assets department, as reported by The Block.

The executive did not specify whether the institution has begun participating in such deals.

Following the collapse of several major cryptocurrency companies over the past two years, the claims market has seen increased activity. The main claims are against FTX, Genesis, Celsius, BlockFi, and Voyager.

McDermott stated that price movements in the cryptocurrency market have historically been driven mostly by retail investors, but the situation is changing with the arrival of institutions. The bank sees broad opportunities in tokenization and is actively working in this area, developing its own digital asset platform, he noted.

“Now it will really pay off. We see an increasing number of financial market participants wanting to move forward, not with proof of concept, but with real transactions. This is what we eagerly anticipate in the next 6–24 months,” he said. 

On March 19, it was also reported about the launch of a tokenized direct investment fund on Ethereum by BlackRock in collaboration with Securitize. The BlackRock USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUILD) was created on March 5, according to Etherscan. The maximum number of tokens is 100. At the time of writing, the structure has one participant.

Back in November 2023, JPMorgan’s subsidiary (Onyx Digital Assets), WisdomTree, and Apollo, along with several industry players including Ava Labs, tested portfolio management using Provenance and Avalanche appchains.

Earlier, BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stated that he “sees value” in an Ethereum ETF, calling them a step towards tokenization.