According to Bloomberg, Wall Street is gradually abandoning the cryptocurrency market. Despite market declines, regulatory issues, and fraud, there was a time when it looked like Wall Street would be able to drive up prices in the crypto asset market.
Last year, when the crypto industry enjoyed the greatest popularity in its history, it seemed that many large financial companies were ready to jump on the bandwagon. Goldman Sachs, Fidelity Investments and Barclays Bank Plc opened cryptocurrency departments, engaged in market research and caused excitement in the world of finance.
The company Goldman Sachs was one of the first firms on Wall Street to showed interest in Bitcoin futures, and was rumored to be working on creating her own cryptocurrency exchange. The investment bank has partnered with Galaxy Digital and led custody company BitGo Holdings Inc.'s $57 million Series B funding round as it seeks to offer custody services to its clients. A year has passed, and Goldman is in no hurry to offer cryptocurrency trading services. Additionally, the bank's Bitcoin derivatives product has not made much progress since its launch.
American Bank Citigroup Inc. has also reportedly developed a cryptocurrency product that could help asset management firms and hedge funds reduce the risk they take when investing into cryptocurrency. Dubbed Digital Asset Receipt, the product is expected to provide crypto investors with innovative controls over their investments and provide an added layer of legitimacy and trust to the new asset class.
Then we have British bank Barclays Inc., which has shown huge interest in cryptocurrency during boom time. The bank has opened a new cryptocurrency assets division, led by energy traders Chris Tirard and Matthew Jobb Duvall. However, the bank never opened a cryptocurrency platform and denied rumors about the possibility of opening one.
According to the report, there are two reasons for Wall Street's quiet exit from the crypto market - falling prices and the lack of a regulatory framework. 2018 wiped out about $700 billion in cryptocurrency market capitalization. Cryptocurrency companies have suffered greatly from bearish market trends, many are closing, many mining companies are losing profits every day.. In terms of regulation, it is believed that the lack of a proper regulatory framework is holding back major players in the financial sector from entering this market.
We hope that in 2019 the market will pick up and regulation will finally be developed.
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