Ninth Wall Street push for bitcoin: BofA creates 'crypto' team
The entity joins others such as JP Morgan or Goldman Sachs that already offer these products
Wall Street's interest in cryptocurrencies does not stop. Despite the fact that in recent months the regulatory pressure that hangs over these assets and the doubts about the carbon footprint of the mining of digital currencies, especially bitcoin, has reduced the fury of the giants of the US market, the first sword of banks continues to take positions in this industry. The last to join the list of entities that offer their customers these products or some type of information or business about them has been Bank of America (BofA).
According to a statement from the entity itself collected by 'Bloomberg', it has created a new team dedicated to the research of cryptocurrencies to take advantage of the investor frenzy for digital assets. It thus joins JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, who have been offering operations and analysis notes on cryptocurrencies for some time.
Alkesh Shah will lead this new division, which will also cover technologies linked to digital currencies, and will report to Michael Maras, who leads research on fixed income, currencies and commodities globally, according to an internal memo seen by 'Bloomberg'. A company spokeswoman confirmed the content of the note and declined to comment further.
"Cryptocurrencies and digital assets constitute one of the fastest growing emerging technology ecosystems," says Candace Browning, Bank of America's director of global research in that note. "We are uniquely positioned to provide thought leadership due to our strong industry research analysis, the market-leading global payments platform, and our blockchain expertise," she adds.
She will dispute the leadership held in this field by Goldman Sachs, which has been offering analysis on this market for months. In its latest notes, the entity has indicated that bitcoin or cryptocurrencies will not replace gold as a safe haven. In fact, in a recent note to clients, they have noted that "gold competes with cryptocurrencies to the same extent that it competes with other risk assets such as equities and cyclical commodities." "We see gold as a defensive inflation hedge and 'crypto' as an inflation risk hedge."
The bank this year resumed a trading desk to help clients trade listed futures linked to bitcoin and in mid-June it emerged that it plans to expand these operations to ether futures. JP Morgan, for its part, offers operations with funds in bitcoin to its large accounts.
Translated by Caoimhe Toman