It seems that Goldman Sachs’ Investment Strategy Group believes that cryptoassets, such as Bitcoin, “are not an asset class”; however, this news has not stopped the price of Bitcoin from moving higher on the day.
As Scott Melker, a crypto trader at Texas West Capital, pointed out earlier today, at 10:30 EDT on May 27, Goldman Sachs’s Investment Strategy Group, held a conference call with the bank’s clients.
The title of this presentation was “US Economic Outlook & Implications of Current Policies for Inflation, Gold and Bitcoin”.
This call was hosted by Sharmin Mossavar-Rahmani, who is the Chief Investment Officer at the Investment Strategy Group (ISG):
Goldman Sachs is hosting a client call today at 10:30 AM EST discussing inflation, gold and bitcoin. There’s a lot of conjecture floating around as to the content.
I will be on the call and will let you know what they actually say. pic.twitter.com/VJkxaPpUzB— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) May 27, 2020
Well, around one hour before the call started, Melker provided the following summary of the leaked meeting notes:
The Goldman meeting notes have been leaked. The gist is this.
Fed = brilliant
Dollar = perfect
Inflation = not worried
Depression = economy has bottomed, no depression
Gold = bad$BTC = bad and for criminalsPredictable. Toeing the line for the government.
— The Wolf Of All Streets (@scottmelker) May 27, 2020
Then, about 20 minutes before the start of the call, Crypto analyst/investor Tuur Demeester, Editor-in-Chief of Adamant Research, sent out a tweet that included what he said was a slide from the leaked notes:
This slide from Goldman's investor call today exemplifies the income & expansion focused philosophy that benefited Wall Street so much since 1913. When the economy is irreparably overleveraged though, it becomes important to look at assets from a wealth preservation perspective. pic.twitter.com/uA5hsuwNoN
— Tuur Demeester (@TuurDemeester) May 27, 2020
As you can see, the reasons for Goldman Sachs not considering Bitcoin (and crypto in general) an investable asset class (although they mistakenly say “asset class”) are an expanded version of the ones mentioned in the past by Bitcoin bears such as billionaire investor Warren Buffett, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, economist Dr. Nouriel Roubini, and gold bug Peter Schiff.
Goldman Sachs concludes that Bitcoin “is not a suitable investment” for its clients since its price appreciation relies on The Greater Fool Theory. Furthermore, Goldman Sachs, says that although hedge funds (such as the the ones managed by Paul Tudor Jones II) may find Bitcoin attractive due to its high price volatility, this “allure” does not “constitute a viable investment rationale.”
The market does not seem to be too concerned/surprised by this revelation.
Dan Tapiero, a global macro investor who likes both Bitcoin and gold, had this to say about Goldman Sachs’ take on crypto:
Goldman Sachs does not make fees when a client buys #bitcoin
Buying Btc is an implicit rejection of buying assets that Goldman Sachs sells upon which they make fees
Buying btc is a rejection of the worldview they sell upon which they make fees.
Long PTJ/Short GS
EVERY TIME pic.twitter.com/AIaiRojpeO— Dan Tapiero (@DTAPCAP) May 27, 2020
At press time (around 15:00 UTC on May 27), according to data from CryptoCompare, Bitcoin is trading at $9,154, up 3.8% in the past 24-hour period:
So far in 2020, Bitcoin is up 27.43% against USD.
Featured Image by “geralt” via Pixabay.com.
