Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein: I'm Open to Bitcoin

Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein has said that he has not comfortable with bitcoin, but he is open to the cryptocurrency.

AccessTimeIconNov 3, 2017 at 9:25 a.m. UTC
Updated Aug 18, 2021 at 7:22 p.m. UTC

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Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein says that he isn't comfortable with bitcoin, but he is open to the cryptocurrency.

In an interview with Bloomberg at the Goldman Sachs Sustainable Finance Innovation Forum in New York, the CEO said that he has a "level of discomfort" over bitcoin as he has with anything that is new. His comments were in response to questions of his feelings over bitcoin futures, as recently proposed by CME Group.

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  • Citing new technology evolutions like cellphones, Blankfein continued, "I’ve learned over the years that there’s a lot of things that workout pretty well that I don't love."

    He continued:

    "Maybe in the new world, something gets backed by consensus ... If we went into the future and bitcoins were successful, I would be able to explain how it's a natural evolution of money."

    The bank chief's comments come after a remark last month on his Twitter account in which Blankfein he is "still thinking about bitcoin" and that he is not "endorsing or rejecting" it. The comment was in contrast with that of his counterpart at JPMorgan Chase, CEO Jamin Dimon, who now-famously stated bitcoin is a "fraud."

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